


A Mercy for Shockwave

by Redfire_Dragon



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: A purely scientific interest, Adaptive biology/physiology, Attempted Fluff, Broken Mind, Character without a name, Deadlock episode, Fluff, Gen, Healing, I don't date mortals, I don't understand what is happening to me, Not Quite Human, Oh wait you were already doing that, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Quick! No one admit their feelings!, Torture, cute stuff, deep hurt, experimenting on people, logic vs feeling, past horror, still have evil inclinations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:57:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11039454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redfire_Dragon/pseuds/Redfire_Dragon
Summary: The story of this story is that I love Transformers Prime, and I was reading the transformers wiki and heard about Shockwave's past, why he is the way he is (see empurata and shadowplay if you don't mind a bit of horror). Now I realize that past might be from a diff timeline. Too bad. His story is too sad and my internals made a story to fix it.This is on hiatus for now, I have half a dozen chapters written, but they are future things and small (but interesting)My muse is lurking in the deep swamps of evertide and it will take a great hunt to retrieve it. Wish me luck





	1. With EXTREME Prejudice

She had heard of Shockwave before this mission from the others. A cycloptic monster of a scientist bereft of morals or feelings. People were just another source of data to be ground into dust for the sake of knowledge.

He was taller than she expected. Then again she was always surprised by how tall all these Cybertronians were. It only took a moment to realize he was fighting with Ratchet. The words 'pick on someone your own size' flashed through her mind despite the fact that while the scientist was larger than the stubborn old medic, he positively dwarfed her. The irony.

Arcee and Bumblebee took opposite paths around the massive hole that took up most of the floor. Without hesitation she dashed after the two wheeler as Arcee clashed with a vehicon. One foot hit the back of her calf, the second on the 'bot's shoulder as the lithe organic spring boarded off her with supernatural strength. For a crucial moment the vehicon turned his head in surprise allowing Arcee, who had practiced this maneuver with their small friend, to blast the mech in the face.

Two vehicons broke from the others fighting Arcee to chase her as she hit the ground running almost ten yards away. Well probably two, she wasn't stupid enough to look back to check. Blasters hummed and fired, metal clashed against metal. If she hadn't been able to feel the blasts coming she would have been hit by now as she charged to Ratchet's rescue. Bumblebee and Arcee were still held up. They might get free at any moment but that was all the time it took to receive a lethal blow. Curse that Smokescreen, if he had been there the medic might have gotten better back up than a lone organic.

An energon blast from one of her pursuers hit her square between the shoulders knocking her forward, her feet barely managing to keep under her. Pain flooded through her more than should have as the modified energy blade affixed to her arm hummed to life. It had been designed to cut through metal and combined with her increased speed and agility it had snuffed quite a few sparks.

Time seemed to slow as she closed on the two fighting mechs. Healer's sense, someone nearby was dead or dying, or were about to be, their pain reaching her from nearby space and time.

Four more steps. Please don't let it be Ratchet.

Three steps. I don't think I can save someone hurt that bad.

Two steps. Shockwave knocked Ratchet back raising his glowing canon at the autobot.

One step. A scream tore from her throat of pain and terror and rage. She would make it be Shockwave who was dying, who felt this terrible pain. To save Ratchet. For Arcee who he had tortured. For the earth and its children, the monster would die.

Her foot flexed launching her forward and up. Ratchet and Shockwave started, turning toward her as her eyes flicked to meet the medic's optics. Surprise turned to understanding there just a moment before the energy blade punctured Shockwave's thick plating making her shoulder scream. She had known she wasn't going to reach his spark chamber when she'd jumped but hopefully it would still hit something important. The next moment she slammed full force into the Decepticon's midsection.

Blinding pain surged through her, his pain, the beast's not Ratchet's. She thought she heard the sound of Shockwave's cannon go off but couldn't be sure through the suffocating agony. It was too much, far too much, she could not reconcile it to the wound she had inflicted. It wound through every wire, strangled every sensor, crushed every circuit. Power flowed out of her like water down a hungry drain. Suddenly she understood. This had been done to him.

Shockwave wasn't a soulless monster born without a heart, nor had he killed his emotions with cruelty or had them die of another's cruelty to him. No, this was worse. Cybertronians' greatest strengths; their resilience in the face of severe injury, the relative ease of their repair or reconstruction even able to switch out worn or damaged parts for new, these things had been used against him. With their terrible tools they had reached inside him and broken him. Emotions, hopes, dreams, desires, all stripped away, leaving only raw logic and sterile procedure. A mind without a heart. A processor without a spark. They had turned him into a machine.

She would kill them.

With a wound like that it was no wonder his need was draining her every drop of power though her healer's nature. She couldn't have stopped him if she'd wanted to, and now that she wanted to help she didn't have the strength to push more at him. It was working though. She could feel the connections reforming between Shockwave's processor and imprisoned spark. The parts that had been maliciously destroyed or removed were rebuilding.

She hit the ground with a thump she couldn't hear but definitely felt, the back of her skull hitting the floor hard enough to 'wake' her. By the stars, had it been only a couple of seconds since she had tried to murder the huge 'bot? Shockwave's single expressionless eye stared down at her taking up the entirety of what would have otherwise been his face. Eye, optic, whatever. Her senses were coming back to her and she realized that she was a small squishy organic in a room full of giant fighting robots and since she lacked the strength to reactivate her energy blade (it had shut down and retracted at some point during the power drain) she was defenseless. Panic rushed through her as she levered herself up onto her elbows. She couldn't even run at this point. Vehicons weren’t attacking her, no doubt chasing Ratchet to keep him from stopping their doomsday device, that was in her favor at least but all Shockwave had to do to kill her was lift one foot and push down. Her blood ran cold as the bubbling realization crystallized in her mind. She had been wondering what type of person he'd been before; good or bad, kind or cruel, but that didn't really matter did it? An experience like that could make or break anyone. ANYONE.

Any moment now the mech whose tormentors she had privately sworn to murder might kill her. Somehow she managed to get to her feet. The metal giant still hadn't moved. Apparently it took time to process, what was it? How long did they say their war had been going on? Four thousand years? Four million? And all the emotions his spark had felt and his processor had been deaf to were slamming into his mind like a runaway train. Cold sweat was trickling down her spine. For all she knew she could have just created the first Cybertronian berserker. He could kill everyone if he didn't just straight up die of pain. That would be ironic, having her attempt to kill him fail only to have him die of being healed. No, focus, she had to get on top of this before it exploded in her face.

"I did" Primus, was that pathetic squeak her voice? "I did this." She stated voice hoarse but strong. Shockwave's optic seemed to dilate, focusing on her, a laser burning into her soul. She was dead, so dead. "Do you understand? I did this." She had to try at least. "You belong to me now."

She waited, her body shaking with terror and exhaustion, held up only by the determination to meet death head on. She waited to become the most spectacular winner of the Darwin Awards ever. She waited, and somehow several seconds later she was still alive.

"It.... hurts." Came the deep voice from high above her head. She blinked, noticing that the 'bot was shaking. He didn't sound angry just shocked, maybe even a little... frightened?

Well of course it hurt! Pain had to be processed through mind and body before it could leave the system. His had been bottled up inside for a horrendous amount of time.

But... he seemed.... sad. Could a mech without a face seem sad? Not sad. Crushed. Grieving. Overwhelmed. As blinded by pain as she had been when she crashed into him.

For the first time in forever his spark and processor were connected. His spark was free, no longer a prisoner in his hulking metal body. She remembered when her soul had been a prisoner in her own body. Watching, knowing, feeling what she was doing as her body danced like a puppet for a will that was not her own. It wasn't quite the same but it had to have been hell too. Whatever his goals were had become the machine's objectives. His hopes, his dreams, pursued relentlessly by an unfeeling machine unfettered by morals qualms ambition. Form without substance. A systematic desecration of all he had held dear.

You couldn't say 'it will be okay'. It would never be okay. Her suffering would never be okay either. She looked up into the broken mech's single optic empathy gnawing her heartstrings apart. "It will get better." She promised and half stumbled forward to wrap his leg in a hug. Her healer's sense was all but burnt out but she could feel the pain and chaos of emotion roiling through Shockwave through her physical contact with him. With a groan she forced her healer's nature to come back online, forming a thin loop of power around the torrential inflow of pain and emotions, squeezing it down into something more manageable. She couldn't take away the pain, the regret, the grief, the anger, the guilt, or any of the other endless emotions that were blasting in from his abused spark. All it would have to be felt, sorted out, and dealt with. But she could slow it down, break it up into small manageable pieces until he got through.

Soon Shockwave's shaking eased. "Yes, that’s right big guy. I'm here for you." It seemed things were going to be okay, maybe. She was just starting to relax when a huge _unfamiliar_ hand grabbed her. "Yarp!" But that was just Shockwave, lifting her up so he could press her tightly against his oddly shaped chassis. "Ease up... need... lungs... air." The last word was a pathetic wheeze punctuated by the snap of ribs. The Decepticon seemed to be trying to push her right into his spark. Mercifully he did ease up though, allowing her to gasp in some much needed air. She could feel the hum of his engine, it seemed to be stuttering a bit but his spark beat was strong. "It's okay, I'm not going anywhere big guy." She patted his chassis awkwardly almost delirious with the pain of her injuries.

"Shockwave! Just kill the fleshling and AHHHGHA!" Starscream's words broke off into a startled scream as Shockwave fired his cannon at the seeker. He held the fragile organic creature close and didn't let her go for a long long time.


	2. What to do with New Cybertron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This used to be a small manageable Charmander of a chapter, but then it evolved into Charizard without my permission.
> 
> Next chapter is from Shockwave's perspective.

Something small streaked by at what would have been surprising speed if Ratchet had not grown used to the downright stupid speeds of their resident not-quite-human. Shockwave must have annoyed her again. Sure enough the Decepticon scientist's heavy pedefalls could be heard approaching. The Autobot medic still didn't know what to make of it all. One minute the semi suicidal Sari was saving him from being offlined by Shockwave's oversized cheese-grater of a cannon, the next?

Well not the next, there'd been stopping the Omega Lock firing sequence, and Bumblebee dying, and then Megatron dying because, by some miracle, Bumblebee hadn't actually died. Then everyone had been busy congratulating him as if Bumblebee's resurrection and the restoration of his vocalizer had been his doing not a mercy from Primus granted to ease the sparks of his war weary Autobots. Yes, his stabilized version of the synthetic energon formula had been a key part of the new cybermatter, bit its power still felt like a gift from Primus, not something that had come from his own servos.

Somehow the understanding, the reaching of the endeavor had made him feel closer to Primus. Unlocking His mysteries had not made him feel great and mighty as Ratchet had observed some of his fellow scientists veer to be consumed in arrogance. Instead he felt humbled, awed by the majesty of Primus's works, honored that He would allow him, grouchy old rustbucket that he was, to have a part in this miracle that had saved and healed Bumblebee, a bot he regarded as his own son, and had the power to restore Cybertron. And the other Autobots acted as if he were the amazing one.

In that beautiful moment his only regret had been that he had no way of learning Shockwave's half of the cybermatter formula. The Decepticon was either dead by Sari's blade or had fled along with Starscream. That opportunity was lost to him and he explained to Optimus that without Shockwave the cybermatter already loaded into the reconstructed Omega Lock was all they were going to get, and regrettably that was not sufficient to restore all of Cybertron.

"But Shockwaves right there." Smokescreen had piped up. "Surely we can get him to help." And as Ratchet started to tell the youngling he was a frelling idiot and that Shockwave was long gone what should he see but the the massive Decepticon scientist, still and silent as a statue, clasping Sari to his chassis like a human child's teddy bear. He'd been dumbfounded, everyone had been really. There was no question that Sari was an odd one, the only sort-of-human teen often created unexpected effects in frankly everything, but this took the cake, as the humans would say. How did you go from trying to kill someone with extreme prejudice to them clinging to you as if you were the only thing that mattered in all the world? Sheesh.

No one was exactly sure what to make of it. Shockwave had seemed oblivious to them until they'd approached to retrieve their injured friend. The scientist had jerked and aimed his cannon at them declaring "You shall not harm the human" in a tense growl.

"She's our friend! _You're_ the one harming her!" That had been Bumblebee or perhaps Smokescreen.

"Shall... not..." The mech began again voice strained.

"Oh for Primus's sake, we aren't a threat to her. But she's injured and needs" Ratchet had started only to be interrupted by Shockwave.

"Shall not take her." The mech sounded angry even a little frightened, his cannon warming up. But before he could fire Sari had stirred.

"Don't... you dare..." She gasped voice raw and exhausted and the Decepticon had looked down at her with that one huge optic in such a way... could a mech without a face look possessive? Her was certainly acting it. "I'm helping you. _Don't_ hurt... my friends."

"Understood." The cannon calmed and dropped to Shockwave's side.

"Thats a big... no no." She said with a tight smile then coughed wetly, blood flecking the hand she'd lifted to her mouth.

Seeing the blood Optimus had gone from confused disapproval to full alert. His energon cannons were out and armed in an instant, humming threateningly as he growled "Release her Shockwave."

"No." The Decepticon almost snarled.

"I said"

"Compliance is... illogical."

Of all the frelling. The anger, rage, and protectiveness in the Prime's optics should have been enough to make anyone back down. Ratchet had thrown himself between the two before Optimus could try blasting the scientist in the oversized optic. "Calm down both of you."

"Old friend..." There was a warning in Optimus's voice that had not been directed at the medic in a long long time. Forget angry, the Prime was incensed. Then again, you didn't need to be a doctor to know coughing up blood was a very bad sign indeed.

"Lets be reasonable about this. Shockwave" He turned to the Decepticon fully to put his back entirely to the Prime. Ratchet was rewarded with the sound of the blasters being reluctantly retracted. "Am I right in assuming you desire Sari not to be harmed?"

"Who is Sari?"

"The organic you are holding."

"I previously stated that she was not to be harmed."

"By us yes, but she is badly injured. Sari, can you tell me what exactly is wrong?"

"I... I got a direct hit from a blaster on my back, burns are..." cough "pretty bad but manageable. Some bruising including one on the back of my head from falling down, no concussion though."

She couldn't be that bad if she was messing with him like this. "Sari the blood."

"Oh yeah, that. Big guy broke my ribs." Some growls arose from the assembled Autobots behind him. "Hey, he didn't mean to. One of them punctured my lungs I think but it's okay for now."

"And you haven't resolved this why?"

"Tapped out doc." She gave him a pained look. "He needed me, my help. They hurt him, hurt him bad."

Ratchet frowned, what kind of injury could drain her completely to heal? The only thing similar he could think of was when Bulkhead had nearly died of Tox-En exposure. But Shockwave appeared fine, not even showing a wound from Sari's attempt on his life, so finding out could wait. "Alright, we can discuss that later. What about you?"

"I am okay. Mom will get back soon enough and she can take care of me. Yes I can wait that long. Besides" She said with a sneaky grin. "Weren't you guys talking about using that" she gestured at the loaded Omega Lock "to restore Cybertron?"

So they had all trooped up to the bridge and the last of their human friends had been bridged in and they had blasted the stable cybermatter into the heart of Primus Himself. That had been Optimus's idea and it scared the medic half to death but it had worked perfectly as Primus, renewed, had brought all of Cybertron back to life.

It was one of those beautiful moments that none there would forget for the entirety of their function. Even Sari and the human children were silenced by a reverent awe. It was a sight Ratchet had given up all hope of seeing when Optimus Prime had destroyed the Omega Lock not so long ago to save the earth. And it was the desperate hope for it that had caused him to assist the Decepticons, however briefly, to create the stabilized cybermatter needed to operate the restored Omega Lock. In his desperation and arrogance he thought he could outsmart them, use their resources to finish the synthetic energon formula and steal a sample of Shockwave's half of the cybermatter, without giving them what they'd wanted. Had it only been an hour ago that he'd been at the mercy of Predaking wishing only that his seeming inevitable destruction could save the earth and its people from his folly.

What was the human saying? The night always seems darkest just before the dawn?

And what a glorious dawn it was. A moment of clarity and a couple choice words and Predakin was turned on Megatron. Then he'd been able to contact the Autobots and soon they were all fighting to save the earth. Then Bumblebee, Bumblebee of all bots, had killed Megatron and the war was over. And Cybertron lived once more.

He had not been willing to ruin it by explaining empurata or the evil known as shadowplay later that day when Sari and her mother had managed to explain what the girl had 'healed' in the Decepticon scientist, who was largely silent and unresponsive except when he thought Sari was in danger or going to be taken away from him. The next day though he had explained it to them all. Smokescreen had been the most affected of the bots, young and inexperienced as he was. The others had fought through the war and seen plenty of horror there. For the rest it was a grim reminder of the evils that had spurred the war in the first place. The reason why Megatronus had been so popular, why so many had flocked to his side when he declared war on the council.

It was only when he heard Raf retching that he realized that these topics might be too intense for the children, especially the youngest. Sari's mother had immediately gone to the young boy to calm and comfort him, giving Ratchet a cold glare that made him glad June Darby hadn't been there too. One angry mom was more than enough. Bumblebee was glaring at him too, looking like he wanted to scoop them both up since it was unlikely that he could separate them and probably unsafe to even try. "Sorry, I didn't think" he'd begun only to have her interrupt.

"No, you didn't." She's snapped then looked down at the boy in her arms, eyes tender. Rafael seemed to have half fallen asleep, still shaking, eyes squeezed shut, succumbing to whatever strange power she shared with Sari. "He's a strong imagination. What you spoke he saw, not just to that one," She briefly jerked her chin out toward Shockwave, who was standing there clutching Sari, as apparently lifeless as a statue "But to all of you." Perhaps the boy wasn't shaking so much as sobbing. Ratchet couldn't quite tell and hadn't dared ask, guilt stabbing at his spark.

"But... but that was just the 'cons right?" Miko quavered, unnaturally pale "They are the only ones evil enough to..." She clearly did not want to believe his words.

"While the Decepticons did employ such measures during some of the earlier periods of the war, it was primarily used by the government as a punishment of criminals." Optimus Prime rumbled regretfully.

"Wait, your government did this? Does that mean Shockwave's a criminal? I mean from before he joined the Decepticons." That had been Jack, sounding freaked out but in better control than Miko.

"Not necessarily." Ratchet said reluctantly and hesitated. "While the council claimed to have empurata and shadowplay performed only on the worst criminals individuals and groups in power oftgen had it performed on those they found... inconvenient." Optimus Prime was looking away, his face a mask of guilt and bottomless sorrow. "The truth is Shockwave could have been anyone before he was... I, and the others, have only known him as Shockwave the most brilliant and unfeeling of all the Decepticon scientists. Exactingly logical and utterly relentless in the pursuit of his goals."

"Wait, so your government was evil and Megatron tried to overthrow it and you guys _tried to STOP HIM_!?" Miko sounded enraged, the accusation clear in her voice, eyes locked on the Prime.

Immediately all the bots leaped in, voices overlapping as they tried to explain. "Autobots." Optimus intoned in that reproving voice of his and, though it was still tired with grief, all fell silent and looked to him. "Allow me to explain. I know Ratchet gave you a brief lesson of my history with Megatron while while I suffered amnesia from the loss of the matrix. As Orion Pax I... believed in the council and their words, just as I believed in Megatronus and his grand words of equality. I was naive and did not understand the corruption of the government but even so our war was not Megatron trying to take down a broken system and the Autobots and I defending it. My goal was the same as Megatron's in a way, I too desired to right the wrongs of our society. The difference between us was only made clear when we faced the council. I desired to resolve things peacefully, to change the laws to overthrow the caste system and give freedom and full rights to all Cybertronians, much as the laws of your United States try to do for its citizens."

"But by then Megatron had become drunk on power and desired to rule over all. His solution was to reach his ends by having all obey him, to inflict his will on others by force if necessary. And he had a sufficient following that when his proposal was rejected he was able to create an army to fight for him." Surprisingly this came from Sari's mother.

"How did you" Ratchet started.

"I might not have been there but I know what people are like. And it doesn't matter if you are made of steel or water, people are still people."

"We aren't actually made of steel, its a complex"

"Anyway" Optimus interrupted, priming his vocalizer. "When Megatron formed his army to establish his rule over Cybertron I, and all those who would stand with me, rose to stop him."

"And that is why you were always so reluctant to kill and why... why mom calls it a civil war... right mom?" Sari piped up rolling the ideas around in her mind.

"Yes Sari." The woman hesitated, as if overwhelmed by the explanation that was coming. She struggled with words, with speaking, though she was practiced enough that it was often hard to tell. "In a Revolution the people are united against an oppressive government or ruling class. In a Civil war the people are divided against themselves, the lines sometimes even dividing families against themselves. Brother against brother, father against son, wives against husbands, sister against brother. Such wars are always the ugliest and most devastating to the spirit of a people, especially when both sides believe they are in the right."

"In this case I venture to guess..." She trailed off looking to Optimus for Permission. He nodded gravely. "Those who followed Megatron were those who had given up on the current system, those who had been too badly hurt by it or knew someone who had been or simply could no longer withstand the sight of the injustices around them. Those who followed Optimus Prime were those who heard his words and believed in him. Those who would have followed Megatron had Optimus's words not filled their hearts, I mean sparks, with hope. Also all those willing to fight to keep Megatron from taking over would have joined the Autobots. Besides these two groups, Autobots and Decepticons, I am sure there was a large number of people that chose no side, preferring peace at the cost of having no say in the outcome."

"Of course there were those who joined for the sake of fighting and killing but not all those who chose to become Decepticons were evil. I am sure that many among them were guilty only of having all hope of freedom or happiness crushed out of them by the evils of a broken government. I am certain many among them truly believed having Megatron rule over all of Cybertron with an iron fist would be better than how things were at the time." Optimus and most of the other bots nodded sadly, optics distant as old memories replayed. Smokescreen fidgeted, wanting to say something but the solemnity made him hold back.

"That's awful."

"Is that" Jack asked falteringly. "Is that really how it went down Optimus?"

"That is as close an approximation as there is likely to ever be I fear. This war, has been the downfall of many who we might have, under different circumstances, called friends." Optimus rumbled in a tired voice, seeming smaller for the recollection.

"Bee."

"Yes Raf."

"I'm... I'm glad you... you chose to follow Optimus."

"Yeah, me too." Rafael reached out his small hand and Bumblebee held out a finger for the boy to take. "But I am very lucky to have made it this far, and to have met you."

Rafael turned his head to look over at Optimus. "You won't let them do that bad stuff anymore will you?"

"Yeah Optimus, just because you beat Megatron doesn't mean you will let things go back to how they were right?" Jack piped up.

"Nah, Optimus won't do that will you big buddy? _We're_ the ones who brought Cybertron back, its a chance to start fresh, do things right. And Optimus can make sure of that, right?" Miko glowed up at the Autobot leader but Ratchet could see the nervousness in his optics. Reviving Cybertron had long been a goal of theirs but that dream had seemed so far away no one had really thought much about what would happen after.

"I will do what I can but the council has always ruled Cybertron since the age of the Primes I cannot"

"Hel-lo! Aren't you a Prime?" Sari interrupted.

"Yeah! Isn't that the whole reason you were chosen to be a Prime? To be a leader to your people?" Miko sounded half accusing now.

"And Ratchet said, before when he was explaining it, that the council chose you to be a Prime before you were given the matrix of leadership right?" Jack added.

By this point the Prime looked thoroughly flustered. "I... I know I was chosen to lead the Autobots in the time of war but... I have no desire to rule Cybertron."

"Who said anything about ruling? Optimus just needs to make" Ultra Magnus began but Miko interrupted.

"Are you kidding? Of course he should rule, the only reason there was a war in the first place is because the council messed things up so badly." She'd put her hands on her hips and was jutting out her chin in that stubborn way of hers.

"The rules state"

"Oh shove the rules Ultra."

"Yeah Shove 'em." Wheeljack jumped in gleefully supporting his fellow Wrecker.

"Hey I was thinking something more like the President with the council working under him the Senate..." Jack said.

"We had a senate" Ultra Magnus began but Miko talked right over him.

"What? Checks and balances? And let them trip up Optimus? No way. They had their chance and messed up bad."

"Yeah Miko's right, what if they bring back empurata and that shadowplay stuff Ratchet was talking about?" Smokescreen demanded looming over Jack.

"Well Optimus would stop them, obviously."

"Do _not_ talk to Jack that way Smokescreen." Arcee warned as the 'bots and humans dissolved into a multilevel argument. Ratchet sighed making his way over to Optimus, who had withdrawn from the fighting. Soon Bumblebee and Sari's mother, still carrying Rafael, joined them. They weren't too impressed with the fight either and Raf had that look of deep concentration on his face.

Optimus sighed heavily, "and what do you think I should do?"

Ratchet sighed shaking his helm. "That is for you to decide old friend. I will support you as always, for so long as you will have me." He said solemnly and was rewarded with a subtle relaxing of his leader's frame.

"And you?" Optimus asked turning to the others.

"You have my loyalty as always my Prime." Bumblebee said with a deferential bow of his helm.

"I just want you to make sure bots aren't doing bad stuff to each other. But that is what you always do anyway so I know whatever you decide will be alright." Rafael said adjusting his glasses.

Normally the boy would have objected to being carried around but Sari's mother was unusual, even Miko had let the woman carry her when Bulkhead had nearly died of his injuries from Hardshell and Tox-En exposure, lending comfort to the distraught girl while Sari and Ratchet worked to save the 'bot's life. There was just something about her, motherly, strong, protective, just being near her made you feel safe, that everything would work out. Perhaps that was why Optimus turned his optics to meet her steady gaze. She seemed to startle and looked away. "Son of Primus, I know what your spark desires. My words on this matter will not give you peace. However do know that my oath of loyalty remains even though the direct threat to earth is ended."

Son of Primus. She rarely called Optimus that, and only when very serious. She still would not look at the Prime. Ashamed perhaps? No, there was sorrow and dread. What did she see with those strange eyes over hers Ratchet wondered. And why the mention of her oath of loyalty? Did she intend to help rebuild Cybertron? Foolishness.

"Perhaps your words may not be pleasant but you have shown wisdom and understanding." The Prime said and reached his hand out to put on her shoulder, making her twitch and then look up at him. Her strange eyes were sad. "Will you give me your words? So I may at least ponder them? I do intend to ask everyone." He glanced at the bickering bots and humans not far away. "Just not like that. No fighting. I will ask each individually I think." He looked back to Sari's mother as Rafael put a small comforting hand on her other shoulder, as if to give her strength. "Friend, tell me your thoughts and what your eyes see."

The woman closed her eyes then let out a small puff of air out through her flat nose. "Rafael, do you think you'll be okay now? Can I put you down?"

"Of course you can. I've been okay for a while now."

Carefully she set the boy on his feet then sat down on the ground, leaning back a bit to easier look up at the three bots. "I agree with a lot of things that have already been said. Cybertron lives bit is empty for now. Soon it will fill as your scattered people come home at last. Once a significant number have arrived it will be too late to control or guide the direction the world will go so whatever you decide you must decide and plan soon or it will be too late. Earth is an interesting world, her people short lived but full of passion. Their wars are short by comparison to yours, nations rise and fall and politics shift endlessly. I've learned from what I have seen."

"First is that any form of government can be corrupted and the evil that is sly can weasel its way into the best forms to darken an entire land. Few forms of government are inherently evil but those in power make it so. Second people come in all types and flavors, some who return to Cybertron will be good, some will be cruel. Your dream is to create a safe haven, a land of freedom and equality. This will require two major ingredients. First mercy, in the form of amnesty for past crimes. Your war, as previously discussed, stained many who would have otherwise done no evil, deceived by lies into violence. As you have said before, if Cybertronians are ever to heal as a people there must be made room to forgive, let people try anew. The next is justice, in the form of strictly enforced laws to prevent the strong, the cruel, or otherwise, from harming others. There will be many kinds of people returning from the stars and some will be wild. The wild ones must learn to control themselves enough not to hurt others. The laws must be fair and enforced to let them know they cannot get away with their crimes and motivate them to self control. Only then will all be safe."

"The third thing I learned from the humans was that the evil that is sly knows that the minds and sparks of a people can be swayed by honeyed lies. They can turn the people against even the most beloved hero. The only defense is truth, upright behavior, and mingling with the people. If the people see and know the true you Son of Primus, they cannot be turned against you."

"Do you think that will be an issue?" Optimus Prime asked deeply concerned. Her expression changed, eyes widened a fraction, horror fear and pain tugging at her. "What is it? What do you see?"

What do you see? It would have been an odd question if the strange woman had not displayed an uncanny ability to perceive things she shouldn't be able to. Her eyes were strange, not just in appearance, something Ratchet's digits sometimes twitched with the desire to examine, understand. She claimed to see flashes of possibilities, something that could be simple extrapolation from existing data and understanding of how things worked, or could be a mystic power, something he had only associated with the first Primes. Until he had seen her recharge the Forge of Solus Prime with her bare hands.

"I see danger and hate. Many bad things. Violence killing. On the best end the Autobots are hailed as heroes and respected for their sacrifices. On the other end they are condemned as criminals of war, scattered, and hunted to extinction. I see the evils of old returning. I see Decepticons taking over Cybertron with cunning words. I see the innocent suffering. Pain, captivity, despair, tyranny, divisions. There are more bad outcomes than good. The only way you may have a say in the outcome is by playing an active role. You must get on top of things before they get bad, before there are problems. How you choose the laws of New Cybertron, and how you enforce them is less important than that they are fair and that they are enforced. Laws exist to protect the innocent." The glow faded from her eyes.

"Few forms of government are evil of themselves but those in power make it so. I find myself inclined toward the ideals of the ancient Greek philosophers. Perhaps not as a permanent system for Cybertron, but at least to build the foundation of peace and harmony, safety and freedom. The Greek philosophers believed the greatest, most beneficial form of government was an enlightened monarchy under a philosopher king. In a monarchy the ruler can be unhindered by the designs of others, they have all the power to do whatever they desire, and the benevolent philosopher king would use that power to establish peace and prosperity. He could and would do all things in the best interest of his people, putting their wants and needs above his own. What better philosopher king might there be than a data clerk, who spent his formative years studying the old ways, the so called Golden Age of Cybertron, the ideals that made it great and the things that made it work, and who, for the purity and earnestness of his spark, was chosen by Primus Himself to lead and guide His children?" She looked up at Optimus with gentle eyes, the gentle soothing presence back in full force. 'I trust you. You can do this. You can make things right." It seemed to say, as if she had an EM field like a bot. Optimus was clearly embarrassed by her words, humbled by her confidence in him. But it was equally clear he had drawn strength from her as well.

Ratchet let the comforting silence stretch out between the five of them for a time then spoke up. "Just how old are you exactly?" He asked in a grouchy voice, though it was a trick to keep a smile from tugging at the corner of his mouth.

She immediately turned a scowl on him. "Ratchet! I've _told_ you, you are _not_ allowed to ask Earth women their age." She was so easy to needle and it lightened the mood.

"Earth women? I notice you didn't say human."

She flushed a color slightly off from what was usual for a human. "My species is not the topic of discussion!" One day he would find out. She was a strange one, a fascinating creature, and one day he would unlock her secrets. Purely for science of course. A fascinating creature, a lot could be gained, scientifically, from learning more about her. Purely a scientific interest.

Remembering brought a smile to the medic's lipplates. but that was then, and this was now. Shockwave was standing next to his worktable now. "Where is the human?" The Decepticon demanded.

"I've told you she isn't... look she has a name, it's Sari. If you try using it, maybe she won't keep running away from you so much."

Shockwave raised his cannon at Ratchet threateningly. "Your compliance is nonnegotiable. I repeat, where is the human?" The Decepticon growled, frame humming with anger and pain.

Ratchet rolled his optics. Just because Optimus had decided they would keep the mech around, at least until he was fully recovered, didn't mean Ratchet had to put up with his attitude. "Put that away, you know you aren't allowed to hurt anyone right now." Yes the Decepticon's half of the cybermatter formula would be a huge help in the reconstruction of Cybertron, allowing them to use the reconstructed Omega Lock for one of its original purpose. But until then he was making a major pain of himself.

Shockwave let out an irritated growl but lowered his cannon. Better. Ratchet felt some of the tension inside him ease. "Where is the human?"

"She's a girl Shockwave. She needs her space. You are lucky she spends as much time with you as she does." Ratchet turned to look at the larger mech and relented a bit. If only the pain killers he had synthesized had worked to ease the pain the mech was in, maybe the next formula would have more effect. "I know it hurts worse when she is away so try to get some recharge. You know, you could try treating her better, for example, learning her name, or talking to her even."

"That is..." The Decepticon started then paused.

"Illogical?" Ratchet finished with a wry smirk.

Shockwave's engine stuttered and he let out a growl. "I Hate you!" The mech snarled and stomped off like a human child. For some reason he'd gotten sensitive about what had been basically his catchphrase before he'd been... repaired by Sari. He would have investigated further but Shockwave spent most of his time staring into space unresponsive. He didn't talk much except to snarl. Ratchet hoped he would loosen up and start interacting with the others as his recovery progressed. No one knew who he had been before the shadowplay but only time would tell who he would become now. The Autobot medic had never heard of such an extreme example, apparently the emotional centers of his processor had been removed entirely and an almost complete disconnect between spark and processor had been created. Usually it was along the lines of personality reprogramming or readjustment of critical ideals and priority trees. But what had happened to Shockwave...

And yet Sari had fixed it, healed as she called it, though Ratchet could not consider anyone in that much pain to be fully healed. If she could heal such an extreme case she could probably heal lesser cases too. There was no known way to undo most of the techniques used in shadowplay, she could fix the unfixable, like the cybermatter that had healed Bumblebee's damaged vocalizer. Was she too then a gift from Primus to help heal His children in the wake of the war? Her and her peculiar mother whom she had inherited her strange abilities from. And what if he could learn more about how they did what they did? If he learned how to reproduce their results his capacity to help, to heal, would be increased greatly. And that was all he had ever wanted really. To help and to heal, in a world too full of hurt.


	3. All These Stupid Illogical Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternate Title: " _Where_ is My Human?"  
>  with a side of "You blipping Autobots!"  
> If you think Shockwave's mind is a confusing jumbled mess that's because it is.
> 
> Sorry it took so long, stuff from other work was eating my brain, got it written but I haven't been able to post it here yet. :(  
> Next chapter is Sari's perspective. We'll get to learn a bit more about her and her weirdo mom thing.  
> Oh and Predacons

Shockwave stomped down the hall angrily. Angry. He felt angry. He could feel it, even through the gradually increasing waves of pain. And pain, that was new too. Sort of. Before there had been pain, when his frame suffered damage, but that had been data, pain was information and caused automatic responses in his motion protocols, but that hadn't hurt. Now if he was careless and bumped into something denting himself it wasn't just an inconvenience for motion and damage alerts on his HUD, now it hurt. And he hated hurting. It happened so much, filled every waking moment. And feelings, they rushed through him, not just as the terrible storm that had started when that infuriating human girl had touched him, but fresh new ones in an unending unwelcome responses to everything and everyone. It was exhausting. And infuriating. And it made the hurt inside him worse.

And, of course, that stupid human girl had run off yet again. He'd no idea something so small could run so fast. None of the other humans did. It made no sense and that made him mad. The universe was supposed to make sense, it was logical. A bloody logical universe. Anger sparked unpleasantly though his neural net. He was so dashed sick of logic. The thought of it, and the words logical and illogical that had emitted from his vocalizer so frelling many times, made his tanks churn. Yet it was what he had lived by during the quiet time when there was only his own thoughts in his processor. And it was so firmly ingrained he had difficulty getting his processor to analyze any other way, as if logic were the only quality of any given thing worth evaluating. But that was how it had been during the quiet time, which had lasted all that endless time, and those patterns had become far more than habit. He wasn't sure if he could function any other way.

Yet that other part of him (or was it other parts?) screamed against it for the quiet time had also been the time of screaming. Those memories were only half coherent, as an endless series of screams and sobbing fits, of vague awareness and fitful torturous emotions and endless sparkrending agony twisting through his every wire and sensor. Trapped, helpless, in endless pain, screaming and struggling, fighting and desperate and angry and afraid and grieved. Somehow that had been him too. A completely different him from what lived in his processor, what had controlled his frame with perfect logical precision all through the war, what had made him so useful to the Decepticons and Megatron, what had developed and invented so many beautiful and terrible things for the cause. Beautiful and terrible, there it was again, emotions feelings _impressions_  weaseling their way in like bloody scraplets defiling the sanctity of his data banks with their frelling emotional commentary where only exactingly accurate words like useful or purposeful belonged. Was purposeful suitably sterile or was it too laden with the emotional? Pit rust it all, maybe he _wanted_ to be emotional Unicron blast it.

He didn't feel healed, he felt more broken than ever. At no time in his remembered functioning had he ever received such damage to his frame as to cripple him like this had. And it was all that stupid human's fault. She had touched him, rammed that burning hot blade into him, then power had flowed in from her and the pain had eased, and the pain had truly started. The part that had been the screaming was comforted, though still in agony, the quiet mind was assaulted by pain and emotion he couldn't handle. He had been split in two so long before it was normal, and now the two halves were thrown together. Logically he knew both were him but they were so different, and the experiences they brought so unlike it seemed impossible. He had tried to search his data banks for a time before he had been split mind and spark but his recall was too busy with the endless influx of confused half formed memories to do anything he consciously wanted it to.

Where was his human? Didn't she knew he needed her with him at all times? His cooling fans were humming loudly as the fought to keep his abused processor from overheating. The longer she was away the faster and more agonizing the inflow of pain and emotion from the screaming one. But experiencing all that suffering was supposedly part of "the healing process" as the little one and her weird organic "mother" all too frequently insisted. And as much as he hated to admit it their arguments were logical and seemed to be true. In the solar cycles since this whole ordeal had begun he had gradually noticed a pattern to the influx of what could only be called the memories of the screaming one. A horrible tangle of pain and raw emotions would assault him and his processor would spin, flicking through memories until it would suddenly lock. Then he would relive the memory, not as recorded data along from the quiet time, but with all the said pain and tangled emotion of the screaming one too. The two sets of memories would sync up, mercy, then settle only for another stream of pain and half coherent memory to pounce. Two sets of experiences, two versions of his function, slowly merging into one narrative. But his function had been long and apparently quite horrible and the unending pain was unbearable.

Part of him wished this mess had never happened, that his processor was still clear and free of emotion and quibbles and the overwhelming pain. But every time he thought that the other part, or parts, of him would rise up in rage and fear and horror and other feelings he could not name, screaming demanding tearing at him that no, he could _never_ go back to that way, that place, helplessly watching unable to act on his own will, a prisoner in his own frame piloted by logic untempered by feeling or moral reasoning. No he could never go back to that. This pain was awful but nothing was worth going back to that. Now he was free, he was in control of his own self again, he could truly live again. Freedom was worth any amount of pain. But suffering unnecessary pain was illogical. He must find the human.

Shockwave turned and stomped down the hall in the large bunker. Stomping was illogical, causing unnecessary wear and tear on his hydraulics, but he was angry and somehow stomping helped with that as his processor flickered through old files knotted with pain. He wrenched open the door to one of the hangars the human children frequented but there were no humans, only the two wreckers and the black and yellow scout lobbing. Curse it all, and she hadn't been with the medic and the smallest human either. He almost left but the Autobots had briefly paused their game to look at him. "Where is the human?" The usual question, he might not see her but perhaps the Autobots knew where she was.

"Sari? Haven't seen her today. Have you asked Ratchet? She likes pestering him." The scout chirped. Somehow the bot had regained his voice and now took every opportunity to use it. It was annoying, not the voice itself, that was a vast improvement over the erratic sounds he had made before, but the talking and how blast dashed happy he seemed about it. It was downright offensive.

"Uh Shockwave?" Worse were the implications it brought up. How had the Autobot's vocalizer been restored? If it had been in the Autobot's power to do so before the scout's voice would have been back long ago. Something had changed to make the repair possible, for example the strange power his human had used to repair his damaged circuits? He could feel his processor ache getting worse, half formed images and emotions making his servos twitch. For some reason the idea of his human using her power on another made him angry. It was completely illogical, what did he care what she did so long as she continued to help him as she should. Or maybe it wasn't illogical. He felt his engine rev without his permission, growling threateningly.

"I think you've lost him 'Bee." Wheeljack rumbled.

What if helping others, like this impertinent scout, drained her power, limited her ability to help him? What if that was what she kept running off to do? Yes he usually found her with the other humans not Autobots and it was true he'd never seen her use her power on anyone else but Primus knew what she did out of optic's view and he didn't know what it would look like anyway. She was being unfaithful to him! No, not unfaithful, they weren't together, she... But she belonged to _him_ she... she... she...

The sparkling struggled against the bindings, calling for its carrier. Carefully he selected a surgical scalpel from the row of perfectly arranged tools, processor on the measurements and ratios, deaf to his own internal screams. This was wrong, this was hateful, this was evil. He screamed and raged and tried again to force his will on his own servo. But the sharp blade didn't so much as quiver as it dug into then cut through the thin plating. The sparkling's screams echoed through his audials mirrored by his own internal ones. A mirror. A mirror. That's what he was. Ha ha ha. His screams mirrored hers, his pain hers. This was torture, endless horrible torture for them both. A sparkling of all things, a sparkling! He cursed those who had caught her and cursed the implacable mind that had deemed this necessary and cursed those evil sludge sucking sons of scraplets who had left his spark intact inside a frame that was no longer his own. But most of all he cursed his own servos because deep in his spark he still blamed himself for his inability to seize control and stop this madness. It was torture, endless torture, and the sparkling's screams hammered into his spark mirrored by his own. Torture for them both but he envied her as hours later her screams silenced and her optics flickered offline. Her spark escaped, rejoining the AllSpark. Yet his remained, trapped forever, imprisoned in an unfeeling unresponsive _machine_ that continued to mutilate the sparkling's frame for hours after with clinical scientific precision.

Memories synced. Data re-saved.

"...'Jackie. You know Optimus would flip." Came a rumbling voice. Bulkhead. An Autobot. Shockwave's single optic came back online and he looked around confused. He always felt disoriented when coming back from memories. At least this time he remembered enough not to try to attack the Autobots.

"He's back guys. I think. Can you hear us Shockwave?" That was the black and yellow scout. When had he gotten his voice back?

"I hear." A while ago, since the human, his human, had started all this. Where was his human? He hurt so much. "Where is... the human girl?"

"Sorry, we haven't seen her today. You okay? You're looking kinda..."

Shockwave's engine rumbled angrily. "No! I am not okay! I have not _been_ okay since that... that... that _human_ did this to me!" He snarled. "Where is she? She should be with me!" Always, at all times, with him. At least until all this pain was over.

"Hey calm down." Bulkhead said in what was probably meant to be a calming tone.

"No! _You_ calm down!" Shockwave shouted illogically, raising his charging cannon at the Wrecker.

"Back off!" Wheeljack snarled, knocking the cannon aside with a heavy blow of his fist. Reflexively Shockwave fired. Three pairs of horrified optics turned to the new hole in the wall. Oops. Two pairs of disproving optics came back to him. The third? Well Wheeljack couldn't seem to decide if he was amused at the turn of events or infuriated that his fellow Wrecker had nearly taken a cannon blast to the faceplates.

"Sorry." Shockwave mumbled abashed, his gave dropping to his awkwardly shuffling pedes. Embarrassment. This was on e of the newer emotions she was rapidly becoming accustomed to. It always came after he did something stupid or illogical, usually because he lost control of his emotions. He didn't like how it cloaked his processor in a haze or filled him with a desire to make things right when he owed them nothing. He was a Decepticon and they were just stupid Autobots, his sworn enemies.

So why did the thought of harming them fill him with guilt.

"I'm sorry. I didn't meant to... I wouldn't have..." He stammered and Wheeljack came forward making the Decepticon scientist flinch back. But the Wrecker was wearing his familiar reckless smirk, dropping a probably friendly servo on Shockwave's shoulder.

"You are lucky I find all this so funny Science or you'd be needing Doc right now." Then his grip tightened almost to the point of denting, optics becoming dead serious and cold as the vacuum of space. "But if you _ever_ hurt any of my friends I will wreck you so bad even Sari won't be able to put you back together."

At least that made sense. "Acknowledged."

Wheeljack's friendly demeanor returned in an instant and he even gave the Decepticon a good-natured slap on the shoulder strut. "Glad we understand each other. Bulkhead, I'm heading to the rec room to refuel." And just like that there were two Autobots instead of three.

"Wait up 'Jackie, I'm coming too." Bulkhead said and began moving toward the door behind Shockwave, the black scout moving to follow.

"Wait." The Wrecker looked as surprised as Shockwave felt. Why did he want Bulkhead to wait? To talk to him about... it took a moment to click in his pain and emotion bogged processor. "Your pet human... it is also female?"

Bulkhead gave an exaggerated sigh. "Miko isn't a pet, none of the humans are, but yes, she is female." Not pets, that again, foolish Autobot sentiment.

"How do..." Shockwave paused trying to frame what he wanted to say as confused memories merged and scattered in his helm. His processor ache was becoming unbearable. Which only highlighted the importance of this question. "How do you keep your human from running away from you?"

He needed his human, she was necessary for his survival and she knew it, yet she continued to run away from him. He had considered cutting her legs off, watc her try to run away without them, but his very spark rose up in shrieking rebellion against the thought no matter how logical a solution it might be. Chaining her to him should have been easy enough but then came guilt. Somehow it seemed wrong to bind her when the Autobots let him wander freely through their base. And there were too many memories of bots being bound and tortured by his own servos. His spark shuddered fit to break at the thought. Even a human didn't deserve that. But just binding her, or putting her on a leash... that wouldn't be too bad would it?

"Shockwave." The Decepticon jumped slightly hearing his name. Bulkhead was scowling at him. "You could at least try to listen."

"I... I'm trying..." But a wave of pain and nausea swept over him and he was splicing CNA in a lab on Cybertron. Pain and internal screaming, not that what he was doing was particularly distressing, just in silent protest while his processor marched on methodically in the pursuit of science. Hours, hours went by inside his own mind as two sets of the same memory linked up in his mind.

Memories synced. Data re-saved.

His cooling fan was whining with the effort of keeping his processor from overheating. The pain was so bad he had difficulty perceiving the world around him. Just like when this all started. But his human wasn't here now with comforting words and tiny hands with the power to ease his suffering.

"C'mon 'Bee... got to... Ratchet... bad way." Bulkhead's voice cutting in and out before his audials cut out entirely. He was dimly aware of being dragged along but the real world was becoming fractured as broken shard of memories dragged him back through confused fragments of his past in jerky starts and stops. Too much too fast, he couldn't process. And the pain, the pain and the intensity of the emotions.

"Its okay big guy." She'd said. "I'm not going anywhere." She'd said. But he needed her now and where was she? She'd _promised_. And he was broken and lost without her. Him, Shockwave, a mighty Decepticon scientist whom so many had rightly feared, broken and lost without his pet human. It was shameful, but it was true.

Ratchet's worried optics were the last real thing he saw before he was enveloped by the darkness of a forced shutdown.


	4. While You Were Busy Dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My sick sense of humor is evident once again but I couldn't think of a better title.
> 
> Where exactly did Sari run off to if not to practice with the band or chill with Raf and Ratchet? Now we get to learn a little bit more about this universe's Sari and her mysterious mom of unknown age and species. O.O Prepare to be amazed, or confused.

"And as the humans say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. There are very very few who can withstand the temptation to abuse the power afforded an absolute monarch." Sari found her mother in the rec room of the Nemesis, teaching the Predacons as usual. As Sari peered around the door frame she saw Predaking sitting in his robot mode on the floor like a human child with almost three dozen undersized Predacons of all shapes and colors sprawled around the room watching her mother intently, drinking in her words with glowing golden optics. Sari still found it weird that they all breathed fire even though hardly any of them were 'dragon shaped'.

"A good king must be just and unselfish, in control of his own words and actions at all times, putting the needs of his people above his own desires. A truly great king must be all these things and wise enough to govern and protect his people effectively." One of the Predacons let out a series of metallic chittering squeals abruptly and Sari's mom paused to give the blue and white creature her full attention. When it was done the woman nodded gravely. "Yes, that is why I am giving these lessons. Predaking may be the greatest and mightiest among you but he is still young and has much to learn about this honor and burden he has claimed. But these lessons are also to teach you what to expect from your king in return for your loyalty and obedience. As it is his job to rule well it is your job to watch him and hold him to his word. To watch he does not become a tyrant, and if he does, to depose him for the good of all."

Predaking let out a low rumble, optics narrowing. Sari's mother's eyes snapped to the angry Predacon and she raised her eyebrows. "Predaking, I know you desire more than anything to rule your people but it is the right of _all_ people to rise up against and overthrow their oppressors, and none can oppress like a king." Her normally kind voice had gone cold and unyielding. "As much as you are their king, and they have accepted you as such, they are also my children, and I will teach them to remove you, or any ruler over them, should they turn dark like Megatron."

At the dead warlord's name Predaking's flared plating seemed to settle a bit. "Megatron was evil." He grumbled, his betrayal still fresh in the beast king's mind.

Sari's mother gave a tight smile, though she too had relaxed somewhat when Predaking had. The woman never seemed to forget that the bot could tear her apart in an instant if he lost his temper. "Then don't become evil and you have nothing to fear. Your people, these ones at least, I cannot speak for ones yet unmade, are fiercely loyal and will follow and fight for you till they day you die except you betray them." The smaller Predacons throughout the room stomped clawed feet and let out out trills and chirps and squeals and thundering roars of agreement, deafening Sari and her mother while Predaking smiled and preened like the cat who had swallowed the proverbial cake whole. Vain over-sized monster. But her mother had always said dragons were vain creatures.

Patiently Sari's mother waited for the Predacons to calm, trying not to wince at the noise. Predaking stopped them in the end, raising one hand for silence that came instantly from the overeager monster bots. She gave him a wry smile and nodded. "Well I think that is enough for now. Off you go and think on these things." Immediacy all the smaller Predacons got to their feet and rushed toward the door. "Don't forget to do your math homework!"

Sari pressed herself against the wall so as not to get trampled. A couple paused to greet her, especially some of her favorites like Skylynx and Phoenix. Sari grinned at them giving Skylynx an affectionate scratch behind his audials before they all scurried off to make mischief or fly or torment the resident vehicons or anyone else they could find. Predaking was lingering, no surprise there, talking to her mom. Sari scowled at his back and made faces at him. The stupid hunk of junk was probably making kissy faces at her mom, again. Okay, not really kissy faces, but the great lump tended to regard her with adoring puppy eyes ever since he connected her dragon form to her human one. Now that her mother had spent so long with the Predacons on the Nemesis she was really starting to look different. At the Autobot base she had always been the other humans to temper the changes, and her mother had worked to maintain, but here she was letting herself go, letting the changes show. Stupid adaptive nature. Soon her mom might start looking like a Predacon too.

Her mother groaned and rolled her eyes. "No, I've got things to do and you have some important things to think on. You pride yourself on being a reasoning being right? So go reason your way through these things, see how far you can get on your own, then you can come talk to me if'n you can't wait for next class."

"But I... you hardly ever"

"No." Sari's mom got her patient slightly amused 'I'm your mother obey me' look and flapped her comparatively tiny hands at the massive Predacon in front of her. "Go on, scoot."

Predaking let out a snort. "You aren't very respectful." He said without ire, a sort of twinkling patient smile that made Sari gag. Slow patronizing oh good he was leaving. She made a scowling face at him as he passed then ran inside to her mother who was fiddling with some datapads like a regular Cybertronian teacher.

"Sari!" Her mother greeted her with a wide smile and a hug. It was slightly weird having her be so big, somewhat over 7'. It made Sari feel like a little kid again. "How have you been my" Her mother broke off in surprise, smile fading replaces by an intent look as Sari shoved away.

"Your children? So the little Preds are your kids now?" Sari sulked crossing her arms and stubbornly resisting the calm her mother was projecting. She shouldn't feel jealous, she'd been her mother's little princess for ages uncontested, no newcomers could change that. She knew that logically but feelings weren't logical. She felt betrayed and jealous and abandoned. This was HER mom and she was calling others her children. And the worse part was she knew that the little Predacons filled a need in her mother Sari never could. After all they were dragons, some of them, and could (or would be able to in time) transform while Sari remained always stubbornly human(ish).

"I am a mother of dragons Sari, you have always known this." She said nonplussed, blinking rapidly as she tried to compute. "I could not let them be slain by the Autobots or the Decepticons. They needed me." Sari pouted at her and her mother's expression softened. "Sari, I may have adopted them but they could never replace you my little princess."

"You adopted me too." Sari retorted angrily, feeling a guilty twinge as her mother twitched back, face going impassive again as she tried to process. There again, that impassivity, that interested polite blankness that had cropped up more and more since she had started hanging around the Autobots. Changing. Her mother was changing and she hated it.

"Sari." Her mother's chiding voice was the same familiar one at least. "That was different, very different."

"Why? Because I needed you so much? Well they needed you too! You just said!" Sari retorted knowing it was unfair but not caring.

"Oh little one." Her mother sighed and knelt in front of her, pulling her unwilling teenage daughter into arms now lined with metal. "You are my daughter, my one and only, you are even of my own blood, a thing I never imagined possible after..." her voice trailed off, choked with emotion from things only half remembered.

Sari burst into tears. She buried her face into the crook between her mother's neck and shoulder and sobbed, clutching tightly to her mother's metallic frame. It was so different, she was so afraid of losing her mom, that she was becoming someone, someTHING different. But there, under the new smells of metal and machine oil was that smell that was uniquely her mother's. Leathery, old, with a trace of smoke and herbs, the smell of dragons as she called it privately in her own mind, and the strange power that flowed through both their veins.

The crying fit faded almost as quickly as it started, the two women drawing strength and comfort one from another. Sari's mother let her go and sat forward on her heels, gently wiping her tears like always, a glistening in her own eyes that Sari reached out to wipe away as well. Abruptly the two were laughing. Funny how so much could change and yet still stay the same.

"Mom I've missed you. I wish you weren't away from the Autobot base so much." Away from home she meant. How funny it was, they'd only met the Autobots pretty recently and already they felt like family. Even after the old base had been blown to bits by the Decepticons and they'd had to move to this new one after scrapping earth's version of Darkmount, being with the bots and their human friends felt like home. It had been a long time since they had found somewhere two misfits like them could just be themselves, not having to hide what they were. Their friends here were so kind and accepting, so why did her mom have to be hiding out on the Nemesis instead of on base with everyone else?

Her mom quirked a half smile. "Sorry sweetheart, I've been busy here and the young Predacons would be a problem and a half earthside. If I could convince Soundwave to help he might be able to hide them from human surveillance as he did Predaking and the other Decepticons, but they are still too young and unruly and far too many to handle."

"They obey Predaking eagerly enough, besides couldn't Raf do the same? He's twice as smart as any stupid Decepticon. It was him and the other two who trapped Soundwave in the Shadow Zone."

Sari's mother shook her head. "Its not a matter of intelligence. Raf has a life, family, school. He can't spend all his time babysitting monitors."

"And Soundwave can? They don't have to stay, maybe just visit a while."

Her mother chuckled. "You just want to try out dragon riding with your friends."

"Darn right!" Sari grinned pure mischief. "They might only be half grown but they are plenty big enough to carry human sized people. Miko would totally flip, especially if we could convince Pradaking to carry Bulkhead. The bot is totally scared of heights, remember with the space bridge? Oh it would be so great!" She laughed at the thought and her mother wasn't able to stifle a chuckle of her own.

"That may have just been a fear of drifting off into space but that does sound fun. Just remember the Predacons are people too, even if the little ones haven't gotten to the point where they can transform and speak like Predaking has. You need permission to ride them and it should always be treated like a favor, just like the Autobots with their vehicle modes."

"They are going to get to that point sooner than Predaking did aren't they? I know they are smaller because you stole them from the lab before they were fully grown in the incubation cells but Predaking was on Cybertron with Shockwave for a couple earth years before coming here and then learning to transform and talk and stuff. Its not going to take the little Predacons that long right? I mean they seem pretty intelligent already."

Her mother thought a while frowning a soft hum coming from inside her. (Sheesh, how inorganic Cybertronian was she? It could have just been sub vocalized but maybe it was an engine or fuel pump. Ugh.) "They had some problems being clones of clones instead of primary clones like Predaking, and the ones they were cloned from were wild beasts not people but yes, you are right, they are progressing quite rapidly. They are already as intelligent as preteen human children."

"It's because the power inside us isn't it? Predaking didn't make the change til he came here, til he was exposed to your energy, he chomped you pretty good those first few times. And the little ones been around you so much. Our power, it changes things." Sari didn't state her question outright but it was there. What is this power? What is its purpose? Why do we have it?

"Our power... I wish I could remember but I think you are right. It doesn't just grant the ability to heal or power devices or increase strength and stamina. It does change things it... How do I say? It is the opposite of entropy. Entropy is decay, all things become less organized, disperse, rot. Our power it... strengthens, restores, opens new paths, elevates those around it. An increase in life. Increase in intelligence. Life to the unliving, sentience to those who border it closely?" Her mother lifted one hand up to her chin thinking hard. "These things... I used to know, but I think you are right. The Predacons who were here in ages past were beasts, these new ones are genetically identical but are fully sparked as our Cybertronian friends would say. It would be nice to test this but it is too much a coincidence and it... yes it feels right." The woman seemed to relax, conclusion reached and eyes glowing with violet power, a quirked half smile on her face.

"I wish you could remember more." Her mother shrugged and Sari smiled again. "So how long before they can talk normal ya think?"

"It will come when they transform, their Predacon form is not designed for speech, even Predaking can only speak english in his biped form."

"But you understand them anyway. How? And why can't I?"

"Probably because you aren't part Predacon."

"Neither are you and I could understand Bumblebee just fine."

"It took you a while to understand him. Maybe given some time you will be able to understand the Predacons' native tongue."

"And how'd you manage it mom?" Sari asked with a hint of accusation.

"I... don't know... it just seems obvious." She blinked a few times serious and perhaps a touch worried. "Perhaps it is a dragon thing."

"Well then how come I don't have it? I'm your daughter, and I hatched from a dragon's egg as you've told me so many times, and now we even know that that dragon was a Predacon. I should be part Predacon, how do you know I'm not?"

But her mother was shaking her head already. "No, you may have been found in a Predacon's nest but you are not of their kin."

"But I _am_ Cybertronian, how can you know I'm _not_ part Predacon?"

"You aren't just aren't. Cybertronian yes, Predacon no. Have you asked Shockwave? Perhaps he knows how and why you were there, he did make those ones and deployed them to earth."

Sari let out an annoyed huff, her mother had suggested as much before. "Shockwave Shockwave Shockwave. I came here to get away from him ya know? He hasn't really be any help. All he does is stare into space and whine." He didn't really whine but he might as well. That at least would be less boring. "He is so blasted needy, all he ever wants is to clutch me close and have me help with his pain and there is only so much of the teddy bear treatment a girl can take."

"You should have thought of that before you healed him." Her mother replied in a cool reproving tone that made Sari gasp.

"No I shouldn't have!" Sari retorted incensed. "It was the right thing to" She trailed off as she saw her mother's radiant grin and almost tangible glow of pride wafting off of her.

"Exactly. Oh Sari, my sweet little princess, I am so proud of you."

"And that was a test." Sari tried to pout but an exasperated smile was tugging too hard at her lips.

Her mother's grin managed to widen even further somehow and she laughed her old familiar laugh. "Guilty as charged." She pulled her daughter close in a slightly uncomfortable hug what with the metal additions to her mother's frame. "Oh Sari, you really are growing into a remarkable woman. Strong kind honorable brave. Everything I hoped you would be." She let Sari go, putting delicate metal hands on the girl's shoulders. "It's a big responsibility taking care of Shockwave, helping him through what you started. How is he progressing? You haven't been away from him too long have you? It may be tiresome but he does need you."

"Ugh." Sari sighed and her mother gave an understanding nod. "Later. Tell me the story again?"

Her mother got that mischievous smile on her face as old as time itself. "Oh? And what story might that be?" She asked teasingly as she shifted to sit cross legged on the floor.

"Oh mom, you know what I mean, THE story, the story of how you got me." This back and forth was about as old as the story itself, so traditional it might as well be the actual beginning of the story. Sari couldn't imagine it being any other way.

"Oh. _That_ story. I don't know why you keep asking, you know it as well as I do by now."

"Tell me anyway." Sari said with a grin settling down in her mother's lap. She felt like a little kid again, in a good way, and her mother's recent increase in size added to the feel.

"Oh alright, but next time you have to tell it to me." She said laughingly then went quiet all but a soft hum deep inside her chest. Then she began.

"Once upon a time there was a great warrior, fierce and proud. She wandered the lands in search of worthy foes, lending aid to all who needed her help and vanishing without a trace. A warrior and a healer but lonely, for there was no where on the face of the whole earth where she belonged. For she was" and Sari chorused with her "a dragon." Sari grinned and giggled. Her family had the best stories.

"But she was a strange creature for she was a two leggger too. A wild creature of forest and flame and air, of healing _and_ war, creation _and_ destruction. A creature of earth _and_ sky, too human to fit with the mighty dragons and too dragon to fight with the mortal humans. So she wandered the lands alone, never staying in one place for long."

"In time the humans spread across all the face of the land, building great cities and mighty empires, pushing into the while places where dragons lived. The Age of Dragons was ending to be replaced by the Age of Man. The two races could no longer coexist on earth and the warrior, being of both worlds and neither, took it upon herself to make sure all the dragons either returned to the stars to find a new home, or were slain to allow the humans to rule their own world." Dragons were aliens. Sari had known that long before humans had invented the word, or even realized that the Earth was round. "She worked with the dragons to help them return to the stars while she taught the humans how too protect themselves from feral dragons and other monsters. She even taught them how to brew the terrible poison known as dragon's bane."

"It was when she was hunting the last of the great iron dragons," The great iron dragons and their kin, now identified to have been Predacons "a beast called Tarasque by the locals, that her life changed. Three times she fought Tarasque to a standstill, only to have him escape before she could finish him off. But the last time she managed to track him back to his lair and among the glowing crystals she slew him, soaking the ground in blue blood. At first it seemed that the blue crystals were all the beast guarded but as she explored every nook and cranny she found an iron egg. None of the other iron beasts had eggs or had shown any indication of having young. Curious she reached out to touch it and the best, and the worst, things of her life happened."

"The egg tore her hand, a part of her power, almost a part of her very soul, away, swallowing it up and releasing a powerful shock into her system. She collapsed unable to stand, watching as the egg opened and a child, robed in a power that matched hers, emerged." That child had been Sari, born from the iron egg of a Predacon.

"But just as her heart swelled in wonder, mind only barely starting to realize what had happened, disaster struck. A dark force, an evil will enveloped the child, swallowing body and sou. Unicron the Destroyer had taken possession of the body as a vessel of his twisted will, hands and feet and power to wreck the destruction he so craved. And the warrior was too drained to stop him. She had gained a child only to lose her a moment later, the best and worst things to ever happen in her long life so close as to be inseparable."

"Unicron fled with his prize before the warrior could rise again, off to do great and terrible evil, to kill and maim and crush. Despair war famine and death followed him as he traveled across the globe. But the warrior followed him as he traveled across the globe. But the warrior followed too, healing and helping but always racing after, fighting to catch the monster." Sari shivered, her mind flickering through her memories of that time. Healing Shockwave before, that moment of realization of how his life had to have been with spark split from the control of his own body, it had brought back all the memories of when her body had been nothing but a puppet to Unicron's dark will. The destruction, the killings, the blood and screaming. The first moments of her life had been filled with blood and death. Men women children, hacked to pieces, burned to a crisp, torn apart.

But that was then and this was now, and her mother's arms encircled her in safety. The warm glow of her power, that so closely mirrored Sari's, enveloped her in love and a sense of protection. Nothing could harm her while her mother held her close, even the horrors of the past faded and lost their sting.

Her mother waited until Sari had calmed before continuing her story. "But in the end the warrior caught the creature and bound the child's body so it could not move. Then she fought Unicron himself for possession of the child's soul and body. The battle was farce and the warrior lost much, her name, her past, the ability to be remembered by others. But she was able to save the child and build a barrier that would prevent Unicron from ever possessing any part of her ever again. Enraged Unicron struck one last time, stealing away a part of her very soul before being sealed away once more. The warrior collapsed, weakened and nearly broken but the tears she shed were not of regret but of joy, for the child, her child, had been saved. The cost was high but she did not care. Beneath the cold night sky she cradled the mad broken child close and swore before all the endless stars that she would do everything in her power to heal and protect the child for all the days she would be given, and to treasure the child as her own. She would be her little princess so she named her daughter Sarai." Her mother quirked a smile. "Or Sari for short."

And that was their story, of iron dragons and possession and an evil god of destruction, but also of hope and healing. By the time Sari had recovered, her broken mind reknit and made whole, the plague Unicron had created (using that beautiful and sacred power of life and healing inside her) had spread to most of Europe despite her mother's efforts to stem the tide. Sari's mind and spirit had healed but she was a child and her mother worked hard to protect her from the horrors of plague while still helping. But overtaxed and still suffering from her fight with Unicron she had to retire and hide from the world when Sari caught the plague.

Not that even then her mother had turned her back on the humans. She still had made medicines to send far and wide, and used her power to fight the plague from afar, something Sari still did not understand the mechanics of. In time the plague passed (though it continued to resurface periodically as as diseases do) and Sari's mother recovered some of her strength. After that they became nomadic together only staying a couple months at any place and usually far less, traveling far and wide and helping rebuild, teaching Sari the ways of healing and compassion as they helped people rebuild broken lives. Those had been exciting times but even now she still had memories of the little hut out in the woods where the two of them rested and healed. Where Sari had first learned what it meant to be free, to move her body of her own volition, how to control each part. And it was where she learned what it meant to be safe as her mother was always nearby with unwavering calm and love, comforting and protecting her until her fear of Unicron and anything like that ever happening again became nothing but a bad memory.

It was there her mother had first started the tradition of telling Sari their story. Looking back it had probably been a desperate effort to calm and reassure a traumatized child that she was finally free from her abuser and that her protector was mighty enough to keep them away forever. And as with most things her mother's weapon of choice had been truth and the magnifying effect it had on her warm, comforting empathic field.

A story that had been told from the very beginning across countless years all the way to now, when Autobots and Predacons walked the earth, great and mighty titans like the dragons who she had always wished to meet but had vanished before her life had begun. She had always wanted to meet dragons, and had pushed her mother to take her dragon often but now, with the Predacons... She had always figured she would be able to turn into a dragon too but despite her best efforts she had never managed it. It was something she had always wanted to share with her mother (not to mention ridiculously awesome), something to bind them closer. But now the iron dragons and their kin from the story were alive and real, and as cool as it was (oh my gosh freaking ridiculously awesome) she had this growing feeling, or maybe just fear, that the Predacons would pull her mother away from her. They connected to her mother, called to a part of her Sari could not reach. Especially Predaking.

But no. The bond between Sari and her mother was something special, strong and eternal. She had been around for a long long time and she had seen over and over how children grew apart from their parents. They had struck out on their own and made their own paths. But no matter how far they roamed, their parents were still their parents, family bonds still remained even when the once children no longer needed to be parented. It became, ideally, a bond between equals, friendship respect and loyalty reinforced by shared blood and experiences. Perhaps that was what was happening between them now. Sari doing her own thing more and more, especially now with Shockwave, and her mother had somehow acquired a life and responsibilities that did not revolve around Sari. But the bond, the love that radiated and entwined their fields, was as strong (or perhaps stronger?) than ever.

Except...

A disturbance was rippling her mother's field and Sari looked up at her. Her mother's head was turned toward where the Nemesis's space bridge was located half the ship away. Her expression was attentive, antennae quivering (stars and leaves, had her mother really developed Cybertronian antennae to replace her ears? At least her blood red hair still flowed from beneath the metal helmet that covered her skull), straining as if trying to catch a whisper of sound far away.

"Mom what" a quick flick of a hand and Sari fell silent, burning with impatience. She bit her lip but she knew her mother's odd abilities, her seeming extra senses, required concentration and focus to interpret and handle correctly, to find the path forward.

Abruptly her mother leapt to her feet with a clang of metal on metal, still clasping Sari close to her as she began booking it. "Shockwave's in trouble. Predaking, I need you to open a space bridge to the Autobot base now."

"What?" Suspiciously Predaking's voice emitted from her mother's head in a confused blast of static.

"Really mom? You installed a comm link into your head?" Sari squawked, shifting and climbing to get into a more comfortable position, clinging to her back like a limpet. She was rewarded by a slight flush of embarrassment on her mother's suspiciously metallic looking face.

"You are near the bridge controls, I know you are, please open the bridge as quick as you can. Its emergency." She barked then there was a click as she closed the link. "The comm link is convenient sweetie." She told Sari apologetically, realizing her physical changes were bothering her daughter.

'Bout time.

Energy crackled across and through her mother's legs, acting more like lightning now that she was more metallic in nature, granting increased speed and strength to the limbs. Each kick off the ground propelling her twice as far as it should have. "Mom what is wrong with Shockwave?" Her mom was actually racing her there, instead of just sending her on her way.

"Hopefully just a really bad headache but it... he went... dark? I'm not sure, but it bodes ill." Her mother huffed as she dashed along the corridors of the Decepticon warship.

Sari let out an annoyed sigh. "You've been away for two and a half weeks and now you are willing to visit but only because of a possible emergency?" She asked exasperated and a bit teasing. Oh her mom. Always the healer, ready to drop everything and run if anyone needed her, even running through walls (or occasionally failing the attempt) if it was needful.

So then what was it that was keeping her away from the Autobot base that would take an emergency to get her to come home? Sari got a borderline evil grin on her face as the realization hit her. Ratchet. All the other Autobots took turns to watch over the Nemesis and guard the prisoners, though it was usually just two or three to a shift and the ferocious Predacons living and running wild throughout the ship. The other Autobots saw her mother from time to time while on duty, but Ratchet, for reasons of his own, stayed firmly earthside.

"You've been hiding from Ratchet." She gasped. "You don't want him to see how you've changed." Sari purred in a voice of pure mischief. "You're embarrassed. You _do_ like him." Oh the opportunities for teasing this opened up. Ratchet was better than Predaking too, he'd keep her earthside with Sari and her friends and wasn't a dragon to pull her away. Or (gasp) did she like them both?

"Saaari." Her mother groaned, having trouble speaking through the exertion of running. She jumped to the side as if dodging something in the middle of the corridor, all without breaking stride. "This again? How many guys are you going to try to pair me up with? I've told you a thousand times, I don't indulge in romantic feelings for mortals." Her mother's voice became strained at the end as she executed a turn so sharp that even with her enhanced strength Sari was nearly thrown free by the G forces.

Was that weakness she sensed though? Her mother's field had blanked itself, hiding emotions beyond her worry for Shockwave. "Oh but that was humans wasn't it. These Autobots live almost forever with proper maintenance." Sari whispered into where her mother's ear should have been with honeyed sweetness. They would get to the bridge soon and the emergency on the other side but until then she had to test this weakness. That sensation, had her mother's body heated up a few degrees? Was that faint flush in her face more than could be explained by her current exertion? Oh this was delicious. "Better not let Predaking find out, he might get jealous..."

Oh that was a definite rise in temperature and her healer's sense informed her of a spike in her mother's heart rate. "Will you shut up?" Metal feet scrabbled at the flooring as her mother half skidded into the last turn. Up ahead Sari could now see the spiraling green glow of the space bridge complete with a confused and worried Predaking at the controls. Sari smirked as her mother gave the Predacon a grateful nod and dashed through the tunnel to the Autobot base.

It only took a couple seconds but that was all it took for Sari to get her game face on (and realize that Predaking was lumbering through the bridge after them). Shockwave needed her. Her was a pain but he was her responsibility. She would do her best to help him through.

Optimus and Bumblebee were in the main room of the Autobot base, they had probably been looking for her when the bridge opened. Optimus had a grim expression as the two bots looked Sari and her mother up and down.

"Where" Her mother began but Optimus spoke at the same time.

"He's in the medbay. Hurry." A sharp nod and they were on their way. Optimus using his comm link to call off the search for her. Sari felt a twinge of guilt. She really shouldn't have abandoned him like that, or rather she should have stayed close by in case of accident. What if her mother hadn't sensed something wrong? How long would it have taken to find her on the Nemesis without a comm link?

There was a squeal of metal against concrete as Sari's mother skidded to a stop outside the door to the medbay. That sounded like it hurt. Sari half expected her mother to kick the door down but instead she simply wrenched it open, her frame still crackling with raw anxious energy. "What is situation?" She demanded, heavy feet clomping softly on the floor as Sari dropped down.

Shockwave was laying on the medical berth and Sari glanced at the others. Ratchet and Bulkhead and it looked like Wheeljack, all surprised but Ratchet looking more than shocked, staring at Sari's mom, optics wide and flickering on and of as if they kept going offline while his mouth hung slightly open. Definitely 'can't believe my eyes' Cybertron style. Sari smirked but turned back to Shockwave, hurrying over and hopping up onto the medical berth. He was... unconscious? Well he definitely wasn't dead, the dull hazy pain leeching off of him proved that. Usually he wasn't in much pain while unconscious, or in recharge, whatever, so there must be some actual physical damage, something new. She could hear Bulkhead talking in the background, explaining something, but her focus was on Shockwave. His frame felt overly warm while his vital signs had dropped abnormally low. Yet he seemed to be in no immediate danger either. His helm practically burned her when she touched it. "Ow, hey why's his head so hot?"

"Seems he was starting to have a literal meltdown, processor overheating dangerously." Her mother said in clipped tones of frustration. "Ratchet put him in a forced shut down but that put his cooling fans offline too." Her metal hand reached past Sari to rest on the top half of what could loosely be called his head. In an instant Shockwave's temperature plummeted to unpleasantly cold. Her mother's power level dipped unpleasantly. "The damage feels pretty extensive I... torn cabling?" Her mother kept up a running monologue as she used her power to explore the damage. It was a way to deal with stress and it helped in healing to know what you were trying to do. "Far too many melted circuits but I think we can handle that and at least the Ratchet will you quit staring at me like that."

Sari glanced back at the medic in time to watch him close his mouth with a tiny click, expression reverting to his usual grouch. "I was just examining you." He said huffily. "I was just examining you." And he whipped out a handheld scanner and moved it toward her mom. Oooo bad mistake. There was a reason why her mother didn't like being studied and distrusted scientists.

Sari's mom spun and let out a snarl, her power retracting from Shockwave to lash around her in visible tendrils of light. "You keep that away from me." Sari's mother growled, her normally calm presence now radiating danger tinged with fear. PTSD was a beast.

Ratchet started and Sari turned to watch, worried that her mother might actually attack their friend. "Wha-what?"

"Hey whats" Bulkhead started moving toward them.

"I mean it! Keep that think away from me or so help me, I'll break it. I don't care how much you need it." Her mother moved between Sari and the scanner, instinctively protecting her daughter from what she considered a threat, but she had also edged backward, pushing Sari back into Shockwave's arm. Good thing her mother's power didn't hurt her, but if those weaponized strands touched Shockwave they'd melt through his plating in a moment.

The Autobots' expressions ranged from worry to confusion. Wheeljack in particular looked like he was getting ready to attack. "I'm a medic, it's my job to keep up on everyone's health." Ratchet said with an irritated scowl, but at least he pulled the scanner back a bit.

"You aren't MY medic." Sari's mother growled, the metal plates that covered (or had replaced?) her skin were flared but the steamers of energy had stilled and faded a bit.

"Whats your problem?" Bulkhead demanded.

"Bulkhead." Optimus said in a warning tone, aware that the situation was dangerously close to exploding even if he didn't know why.

"No really" Bulkhead started, growling in his frustration.

"Dragon, what is" Ratchet began with true concern, worried optics searching.

But before anyone had realized he was moving Predaking's bellow of rage shook the whole room and the massive claws of his dragon mode were lashing out at Ratchet who was turning but not fast enough. Metal shrieked as the great talons tore though thin plating. Sari gasped hearing the splatter of blood on the concrete floor and realized she didn't know where her mother was...

Predaking let out a distressed cry. "He... he didn't do anything wrong. Don't hurt him Predaking." Her mother said softly and Predaking jerked back, freeing his claws from her mother's torso. Immediately her began to transform though his horror was obvious even in his beast mode.

"Dragon, why did you" Ratchet said shocked, horrified, reaching out for her.

"But he... he... you were upset, you felt threatened. I know you did." Predaking began sputtering.

Her mother fell to her knees, raising her hands up to press against the wounds. "I'm sorry, just... overreacting. It's fine, I just"

Sari relaxed, her mother had calmed down, she wouldn't attack anyone. As much as she liked the unfolding drama and the soap opera-esc scene of two men vying for a woman's affection only to have her caught in the crossfire (even if Ratchet and her mom were too stubborn to admit their feelings for anyone) the danger had passed and she had Shockwave to attend to. It sounded like the adults had some major talking to do, she'd get Bulkhead and Bee and Smokey to give her the deets later.

In a way she was sort of glad her mother was busy elsewhere, her mother's power didn't work as well on mechs, better keyed for organics, even if she understood the mechanics of healing better than Sari did. Perhaps her power worked better on Cybertronians because she was part Cybertroninan to begin with. She'd had an instinct for it from the start but it was study that had made her good at it. The power wanted to help, to heal, but it needed direction or it could heal things incorrectly, like how an organic's body could heal itself but bad injuries had a chance to leave permanent scars instead of regenerating perfectly. HEr mother had drilled that into her head from the first time she expressed an interest in learning how to heal. Know what you are doing. Understand what is wrong, how things should be, and how to get from here to there. The healing power could rebind tendons to the bones they had been torn from but if it was reconnected at the wrong place full range of motion was lost and you could permanently cripple the person you were trying to heal.

So she had studied people and anatomy with a dedication only equaled in her combat studies. She hated studying but healing and fighting were worth it.

She let her power trickle in through Shockwave's plating, trailing along energon lines and strained cables. Oh some of this was bad, there, internal bleeding, scrap she should have noticed that earlier. With a faint smile she scooped the spilled energon pooling in his back up, gently coaxing it back in through the damaged fuel line before sealing it closed. Quickly she did a cursory scan to check for any other burst lines. Some were damaged but not quite enough to leak. His internals showed damage from excessive tension, a clenching due to his pain no doubt. Better to just fully repair the fuel lines now so they wouldn't be able to burst if he clenched up again when he woke up.

No internal bleeding, check, now ruptured cables? Or damaged wires? Oh sensor damage, she tickled one with her power, urging it to reconstruct before dancing along reforming wires to the next and the next until his neural net had been as fully repaired as she could manage. Biomechanisms, they had all looked fine but she double checked them. Eh, nothing an energon infusion wouldn't fix. Circuits, good, engine motors servos, okay. Pistons and hydraulics, bad, he'd over pressurized them somehow and they were showing signs of strain. What had he been doing? Stomping around like a five year old? Her mirth evaporated with the knowledge that his breakdown was because she had ditched him for too long, leaving him alone in his ocean of pain.

Her mother had never abandoned her in her time of need, no matter how hard it had been.

Time to bite the bullet. She'd been avoiding his head this whole time, 'literal meltdown' sounded like really bad, and it was completely her fault. Without her there to slow the flow of pain and memories it had become too much for him. Hesitantly she reached toward his processor, reshaping the connecting wires so they would work properly. There, all that pain and damage. She flinched back, sliding down to brush against his spark chamber. She tried to pretend she was checking it for damage but in reality she found herself just listening to it. She moved her hands from his side up to rest over his spark chamber.

His sparkbeat hand changed from when she had first met him, no longer the frantic fluttery thuds, no longer feeling so desperate and hopeless. It had slowed but the still erratic beat was nothing like the steady rhythms of her Autobot friends' sparks. Bumblebee's, all brightness and sunshine, its rhythm had an exciting skipping feel when he was happy and a quick determined beat when sad or serious. And then there was Bulkhead's, strong and slow and all but unstoppable. It had terrified her how weak and lackluster it had become when they had nearly lost him to Tox-En. She hadn't been so scared in ages and had been so frantic to keep him alive she had nearly offlined herself. And Ratchet's sparkbeat, grouchy and feigned reluctance until he got exceted about something, Arcee's sorrowful but determined, Smokescreen's overeager and rushing but dependable. Wheeljack's had a cocky staccato beat that turned hard and forceful when protecting (or avenging) his friends. She remembered how it sounded just before he and Miko went to trash Hardshell. Ultra Magnus's was new, stiff and exact in rhythm with just a hint of uneasiness. And of course Optimus Prime, whose steady sparkbeat was strong and solemn, even when quickened by fear or hope he radiated strength and steadiness. All of them so different but she had taken the time to learn each. So who would Shockwave become? When he finished his recovery and his sparkbeat settled into its true rhythm what sort of sound would it make?

She was scared of his processor. Cybertronian processors were so complicated and intricate, even after all this time (though really it hadn't been that long really, the Autobots hadn't been on earth more 'n a few year sand it had been a bit before Sari and her mother had joined them) she wasn't totally confident in her ability to fix the damage but it wasn't like cables or gaskets that could be replaced. How much could normal cybertronian medicine do for processor damage? It was too bad she didn't know machines or computers very well. Then again Cybertronian physiology seemed as similar to earthtech as humans were to insects.

Circuits wires data banks, even in forced shut down there was quiet activity trickling through his processor. Did Cybertronians dream? she did but she was part humanoid too, besides forced shut down was like being unconscious right? What had Ratchet said when he'd done it to Bee when Megatron had been in the scout's head? It would force his mind to relax? The tiny trickles of electricity were flowing easier as her power repaired deformed and scorched components.

Rest, she soothed, repair. She focused on trying to let the commanded flow into him as her mother's presence had the power to do. Her mother could calm a crying child with nothing more than a touch and a smile. Sari wasn't at that level though she could still vibe out impressions onto those around her. Cybertronians had that too, sort of, what was it? EM field? Sort of a personal space bubble where their powerful electromagnetics broadcast their current feelings. She remembered when the Autobots had first realized that she could understand their fields, and their surprise as it was reconfirmed that humans (whose bio-electricity was so weak in comparison) could not. She couldn't pretend to be just a human after that and some of her and her mother's secrets had been reluctantly shared. But the Autobots, being aliens themselves, had been kind and understanding, a bit confused but accepting even if they only had some of the facts.

More tickles of electricity were dancing through Shockwave's processor, so different and yet so similar to a human brain. It looked like the treatment was working well, though she was feeling tired, drained of her own internal energy. Good thing she had skipped trying to repair his torn cables and crap, why did processor work have to be so darn intricate?

Something heavy and hard came down on her back. Sari yelped and tried to squirm away as her mind struggled to switch gears from the healing inside Shockwave's processor to what was going on with her own body. It was a clawed metal hand, Shockwave. She blinked a few times and saw the mech was awake, his single huge red optic staring down at her half sprawled on his chestplates. Now that she was paying attention the familar waves of pain were emanating from him, mostly muted by her power. Without a face it was hard to read him (especially since his EM field only ever communicated pain) but he'd nearly died, and had received semi-permanent processor damage because of her. He had to be mad. She shifted uncomfortably and his hand clenched, engine revving out a small growl as his claws dug into her almost painfully, though not hard enough to pierce her skin. Yet. "H-hey big guy." She hated how nervous her voice came out. She wasn't scared of him. She wasn't scared of anyone, or anything. She squirmed again under the crimson glow of his single optic, wincing as the claws dug harder into her back and sides.

"Sar-ri."

She blinked several times, her name or apology? Both seemed unlikely coming from him. "What? You choose now to finally learn my name?" Her mouth quirked into a bit of a smile.

Shockwave nodded hesitantly, and Sari's smile widened and she shook her head with a chuckle. Idiot. "Sar-ri, I want..." He trailed off seeming to have gotten distracted or maybe just collecting his thoughts. "Do you hate me?" He asked in a voice so small and wounded it made Sari's heart clench.

"Eeesh no. Why'd you think that?"

"Well." He hesitated, his optic dulling then brightening again. Oh right, she realized just before he said it. "You keep running away from me. Is... is it because..." Oh man this was painful, and not just because he sounded like a kicked puppy. "So many." He tried instead. "So many terrible things I've done. I... I... I..."

"Just shut up. I don't hate you." He sounded like a broken record, caught in a verbal loop as his mind tried to form coherent thoughts over the chaos of memory reintegration. She winced slightly, she hadn't finished repairing his processor and now her levels were too low to do much more for him than her usual pain slowing.

"But, but I..."

"I don't hate you, I've just been selfish and irresponsible. I said I'd be there for you and I haven't been. I'm sorry." A smile tugged at her lips and the old joke managed to escape. "In more ways than one."

Shockwave's frame relaxed a bit but he started again. "I'm a terrible person"

"Eh you weren't yourself." She interrupted. "Drop it for now, we can talk about your past since and you can self flagellate later. Try to relax, you tore some cabling earlier. Ratch's probably going to have to replace some of it, or I can try fixing it later if you don't mind waiting a couple days." He was relaxing slowly with each word. Finally he let his head thunk back onto the medical berth, weird antennae audial fins and all. It probably was quite a strain on his neck to look down at her over his jutting chestplates.

"Your name is strange, an apology, is that normal for humans?" More talking? She gave him an odd look. First her name then whining about being an awful person and now... this was more than he'd ever spoken to her before. He really had fried his processor to be acting so different.

"It's not an apology, its an old name, it means princess."

"You are... a young monarch in training? The daughter of a king?" Shockwave asked in cautious confusion.

Sari giggled. "Eh something like that." She had really enjoyed being Smokescreen's human partner while that had lasted, but maybe being stuck with Shockwave 24/7 wouldn't be total misery after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters just keep getting longer and longer x.x this one practically doubles this work's length.
> 
> In case you are wondering the plague Sari mentions is the black death so yes, that makes Sari almost seven hundred years old :) She just looks like a teenager because of slowed aging.
> 
> Picture for Tarasque predacon  
> https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/34/8f/67/348f67501905514e414d3fc69698a696.jpg  
> Tarasque is an actual mythical dragon from Europe, I just wanted a legitimate french dragon name
> 
> For some reason while I was actually writing this my brain kept picturing mostly Cybertronianized Sari's mom as looking like Trepan from this comic  
> http://koch43.deviantart.com/art/Lesson-4-Slash-483074719  
> A weird thing I found on accident looking for transformers pictures. Very beautiful if a bit strange (especially since I have no background for it)  
> Until she left the Nemesis... then I was unable to see her anything other than Rung (How did that happen? I don't know anything about him either!)  
> Stupid brain.


	5. Unexpected Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a fun if meandering one to write. Trying to keep it at a pace where reading his internal thoughts goes with the timing of the scene, sort of fleshing out more Ratchet's relationship with Sari's mother (Who finally gets a (sort of) name wooooo) and how his scientific mind looks at all these things.
> 
> Sadly this chapter had no name, and I've no idea what to write for the next one, though I finished the very last chapter of the story a long while ago. x.x

Ratchet had heard that Sari's mother's appearance had changed from the others coming of their shifts aboard the Nemesis but this... He rebooted his optics a third time. There was Sari, ridding piggyback on an undersized unknown bot with a nose smack in the middle of their faceplate, long crimson hair spilling out from beneath the lower edge of their helm, and wearing oversized, but still too small, human clothes, a faint purple glow coming from beneath their shirt. Nope, didn't make any more sense this time. His processor was rejecting the image, rejecting the obvious conclusions, it most certainly could not be

"What is the situation?" That was her voice, demanding answers in the cool professional tone of a doctor, of a healer. With his optics closed it was easier to believe it was her. Her voice was the same but then there was the soft clomping of light but clumsy pedes on the concrete floor.

His optics booted up again revealing the strange bot. He looked them up and down, they could have been a lightly built mech or a shapeless femme. Sari's mother had never been shapely, so flat chested and straight hipped he had theorized that the primary reason she kept her hair so long was to help make her immediately identifiable as female. Sure you could tell if you looked closely but it was subtle, unlike her daughter who was well formed by human standards.

As his optics came back online for the final time he admitted to himself that the bot did sort of look like Sari's mom. The features, that sharp nose that did not belong on any bot's face, the slanted optics, a hint of cheekbones, the way she stood as the pumped Bulkhead for info, the crackles of magenta lightning that still occasionally ran across the dark cloth of her human trousers, the long strands of hair the color of human blood.

The bot definitely had her voice.

So then it should be a femme? It was hard to tell with the white blouse and trousers disguising the details. If she weren't wearing them

Ratchet terminated that line of thought before it could get any further. Cybertronians didn't wear clothes, they didn't need them but this bot, Sari's mother didn't really look fully Cybertronian. In some places the copper silver and black metal formed distinct plating, the visible elbow joints and ankles were especially well articulated, but others, like neck and hands and that faceplate with a nose, it looked more as if her skin had simply turned to metal, or more likely, had simply taken on the coloration and shine of metal. That made far more sense, a costume, but even as the idea drifted through his processor he knew it wasn't right. The way she moved, the slightly clumsy heaviness as she marched over to Shockwave on his medical berth on thick well-proportioned pedes as if unused to the increased weight, the way her plating remained in exact position relating to her struts (or bones, struts was an assumption, he couldn't know the extent of her conversion to Cybertronian physiology). The plating was clearly attached and the joints fully functional.

So how in the name of Primus had she gotten this way? Had she built herself an armored exoskeleton or just spontaneously grown the metal out through her skin. Had her skin just gone metallic as her hands and neck were now and it had just thinking naturally into inflexible jointed Cybertronian plating? She had shown impressive regenerative power before, had it become infected with Cybertronian CNA and begun actively converting her into... into... into this? This bizarre half human looking minibot creature. His processor tried to crash (again) at the overwhelming ridiculousness of the whole situation. This sort of thing didn't happen, couldn't happen. Organics couldn't become mechanisms or visa versa.

But Sari was part Cybertronian even if it was not physically expressed at the moment. She, hypothetically, was an organic that could become a partial or full Cybertronian. So her mother... Argh no! No no no! It did not compute. Before she had changed her physical appearance and the two had explained her increased height and skin coloring as a manifestation of her 'adaptive' physiology which worked to help her blend in. But that had been other organics not giant metal aliens.

But there were certain similarities between human DNA and Cybertronian CNA... and it definitely was her in there.... and he had seen her change into a decent sized dragon from human lore... He had always wondered about that, where did all the extra mass go? How were those bronze scales hard enough to resist Decepticon attacks?

She certainly was well formed and the copper and silver plating didn't look painted but pure carefully polished metal and the black accenting a fine oxide treatment. The light delicate build of a scientist. But how much was Cybertronian and how much still human? Did she still have her human(ish) eyes? Or had they been converted to optics? would they remain purple or shift to pure Energon blue? She had metal skinned human hands but black and copper Cybertronian elbows. What about her shoulders? or that back hidden beneath

"Ratchet, would you quit staring at me like that?"

It took him a moment to process her words and he glowered. "I wasn't staring." He retorted huffily. The nerve of her, she wasn't even turned to see him looking. "I was examining you." He was, and why not? She was fascinating and so... changed. There were limits to what optics alone could analyze. He pulled out a medical scanner and took a step toward her.

It was as if he had triggered warrior coding inside her. She went from calmly working on Shockwave's powered down frame to snarling in his face (or up at it really). "You keep that away from me!" Coils of energy lashed around her like tails or the tentacles of one of earth's more unpleasant sea creatures. Her calm presence had twisted and shattered, becoming something dangerous, threatening.

"Wh-what?" It was a medical scanner for Primus's sake. The least invasive of all medical tools and she was glaring as if Ratchet was pointed a fully charged blaster at her. The blatant menace felt like an almost physical attack and his plating clamped down tightly, protectively, preventing him from venting properly. He hadn't felt so threatened by her since they had first met and then she had been a great big flying Predacon looking monster who had just munched on some Decepticons and had been glaring at Ratchet and his friends as if she would eat them out of pure spite.

They hadn't been on Earth long. It had been a pretty enough planet from a distance, green and blue with tan and snowy white poles. Too bad green always seemed to mean organic plants and coupled with so much blue he had known the planet would be teeming with organic lifeforms. When they'd landed and found humans? Well that had been a long and awful week or two. Just him, the scout he had failed to heal, an Ex-Wrecker, and his Prime trapped on a planet swarming with tiny fragile fleshy creatures of sufficient intelligence to build a civilization and even primitive machines. Hopelessly primitive and possessing disturbing similarities to Cybertronians without parts or design for alt modes. By Optimus's insistence they had all scanned Earth vehicles to allow them to travel freely without disturbing the natives who the Prime didn't think (rightly in Ratchet's opinion) could handle the idea of aliens living among them, much less ones of an inorganic nature. There were deep fissures of prejudice between organics and inorganics. Organics especially had a hard time believe an inorganic creature could be truly alive much less deserving to be treated as people instead of things. Stupid organics.

Things had gotten better when Arcee and Cliffjumper had finally joined them but they had ended up bringing Decepticons with them. After the first battle Bumblebee had confessed he felt they were being followed, being tracked, by maybe more than just the human government (who had yet to make contact with them). Everyone just figured it had been the Decepticons until the second battle when, just as Bulkhead was hitting his stride, a female human teenage had appeared out of seeming nowhere riding ha huge fire breathing bronze dragon. The beast had snatched a Decepticon drone out of the air and shredded its wings with vicious fangs while the girl (laughing like a maniac) had starting firing on everyone, and everything, with what could only be described as a rainbow cannon.

It had been enough to make everyone pause and watch as the multicolored beam swept over a couple panicking humans and a Decepticon who had all collapsed unconscious. Then the panic had begun. Starscream screaming at his soldiers who were split between attacking the Autobots, the dragon, and straight up grabbing their fallen comrades and fleeing. Cliffjumper and Arcee had opened fire on the dragon while Optimus shouted for them not to harm the human. And the rainbow beam had zipped along knocking humans and bots alike out, flickering on and off while the girl laughed and the dragon roared. And then Cliffjumper and Bulkhead were out and the Decepticons in full retreat, a couple carrying the unconscious Starscream. He remembered thinking it figured that this disaster would occur the one time he was out with them, rusty pistons and all.

Then Optimus hit the ground with thunderous clangs and Ratchet felt like his whole world had shattered. All that endless war, countless battles, and Optimus was felled by a rouge element on some backwater organic planet. But he'd been checking Bulkhead and he'd seemed alive so Optimus was probably... He remembered Bumblebee's wordless screech of horror and anger as he opened fire on the dragon with its human and her dangerous toy. Ratchet had lurked toward Optimus (and the other two had too) only to watch as the coppery near Predacon had dropped down on top of their leader, vicious Energon stained carbon steel claws resting on his chestplates, directly over his sparkchamber, but not piercing yet. The beast radiated menace needing no words to express its dire threat.

"Stop shooting you metal morons! I've got your leader and a fully loaded dragon and I'm not afraid to use her!" The little human had yelled an exasperated grin on her dark face. All three of the remaining bots hesitated. Arcee's blasters had given off a charging whine and the dragon had growled hatefully, claws pressing down just hard enough for spidery cracks to spread out across the helpless Prime's windshields. Ratchet thought he was going to have a spark attack, his vents choked with terror from the awful situation and the almost tangible sense of danger that was hammering into him and his fellow Autobots.

But that had been then and this was now, and he had never thought he would have to face that again after she and Sari had joined them. Back then she had been trying to stop them from shooting at her child without actually killing them but now... This much threat and danger, over a medical scanner of all things?

"I mean it! Keep that thing away from me or so help me, I'll break it. I don't care how much you need it." She shouted, moving between Ratchet and her daughter. Was that her plating flaring? How could that be possible? Was the purple glow radiating from the center of her chest turning red?

No, he would not be afraid. Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Optimus, Bumblebee, he was not alone and he would not show weakness to the frightened beast Sari's mother was behaving like. "I'm a medic, it’s my job to keep up on everyone's health." He scolded, irritation masking his fear. As he spoke he slowly lowered the scanner, angling it toward the ground. Her fear waned as he did only to flare up again brighter, starting to consume the danger she radiated.

"You aren't _my_ medic." She snarled but it didn't bother him much, it was easier not to be afraid of someone who feared you. He'd dealt with plenty of frightened patients over the long millennia of his function, even ones afraid of him. And she was a patient this reaction was too far beyond the norm, processor damage (or whatever organics had, a brain was it?) emotional scarring, something had happened to her to make her react like this. Medical torture? He really should have realized something was wrong with her before. She never allowed him (or anyone else) look after her injuries or even check what was wrong. She'd always brushed off any offer of help while Sari had submitted cheerfully to his scans and more. And he'd never given it a second thought.

"What is your problem?" Bulkhead demanded from where he now stood next to Ratchet, the Wrecker only one wrong move away from taking her down. Scrap. Had he actually extended his blaster? The last thing they needed was for some overprotective warrior antagonizing the terrified creature.

"Bulkhead." Optimus said warningly from the doorway, clearly thinking on the same lines as Ratchet. The Wrecker began to retort but Ratchet pushed that aside, focusing on the problem in front of him.

"Dragon?" For reasons not well understood Sari's mother didn't have a name (some nonsense about Unicron stealing it? Organic foolishness) so he and the other Autobots had taken to calling her Dragon as Sari had first introduced her in her alternate form. "What is" he began worry showing through his voice.

"Predaking's bellow of rage made his Energon run cold. Ratchet hadn't realized the Predacon was Earthside. Time seemed to show as Ratchet pivoted, instinctively knowing he wouldn't manage to turn fully before the attack hit. Only question was who the Predacon regarded as the bigger threat to his, to Dragon. There was a wail of tearing metal and the splatter of spilt Energon on plating and floor. But no pain so... reflexively he jerked his helm to look over at Bulkhead.

Predaking let out a wail of distress drawing Ratchet's focus from the shocked but unharmed Wrecker. "He... he didn't do anything wrong." Dragon said in a soft pained voice. "Don't hurt him Predaking."

What in the AllSpark? Had the glitching misclock leapt onto the enraged Predacon's very claws? How else could such a small, short frame get between those talons and Ratchet's own plating? The delicate frame spasmed as Predaking jerked those cruel claws free. No that would increase bleeding his medical protocols screamed. The damage, two of those claws had come out her back, the depth, the angles, "Dragon, why did you..?" He couldn't even finish as his processor struggled, trying to analyze the wounds in terms of both Cybertronian and human physiology. Ratchet went to his knees reaching out to pick her up.

"But he... he... you were upset, you felt threatened." Predaking sputtered, in his robot mode. "I know you did." Defensive, Ratchet felt a flicker of anger, how dare the beast while she... she...

"I'm sorry, just... overreacting. Its fine, I just..." She pressed her metal hands against the gaping wounds in her torso on her knees and hunched over as Ratchet carefully scooped her up from the puddle of red and blue fluids. Stupid stupid creature. Sure Predaking's attack would have hurt but the others would have pulled him off the medic before the beast could have offlined him, but her...

"Ratchet." The others were crowding around begging answers, for hope, and all he could do was stare down at her knowing those claws had torn through where a human's major organs were located as well as several Cybertronian ones including the all-important spark chamber. Would she turn grey when she died? Humans didn't but she had Cybertronian

"I said it's, fine." How was she even talking? A soft lavender glow covered her hand and it finally clicked in his processor.

Ratchet let out a snort. "Fine? You are far from fine. Do you have some sort of death wish or did you just feel like being overly cruel to Predaking?" He grumbled. She would be okay. The glow of her healing power was worryingly weak but she didn't seem to be actively bleeding anymore. "Bulkhead Wheeljack, stop picking on Predaking, she's going to live."

"Couldn't, let him, hurt you. My fault. Not yours." She shuddered and coughed wetly as Ratchet got back to his pedes.

"You're an idiot." He was probably just lucky whatever drove her to protect was stronger than her terror or she'd've attacked with Predaking and the situation would have dissolved into a mangle fest between Autobots and beastbots. Still she could've let him take the blow and talked the Predacon down from there, or let Bulkhead and Wheeljack 'calm him down'.

"And you're stubborn."

"I'm stubborn?" He snorted again. "This whole mess would've been avoided if you'd told me about your problem at any point during the last, what, three years its been now since you joined us?"

"Ratchet you are sure she's going to be okay?"

"Yes Bumblebee." Though that glow had been pretty weak. "She is a doctor of her own kind." Whatever that way, some sort of shapeshifter? They came in human legends as the Predacons had under the name of dragons. He had never observed her change into anything other than an organic 'dragon' (though he had never been allowed to directly observe the transformation in either direction) so he had always assumed she had some sort of organic t-cog (the first among humans for his parallel evolution theory while he had still thought she was human), and had managed to implement as her 'vehicle mode' a reconstruction of (or more recently, as he discovered earth dragons were Predacon clones sent to earth long ago, directly scanned from) a mythical monster. But for an organic to change into an inorganic lifeform? It seemed so impossible. Could she even survive such a transformation? She bled both Energon and red human blood, perhaps this mingled form was an end point? So many questions, perhaps after this mess caused by her own reticence her shame would drive her to start giving answers.

He was starting to see why Bumblebee so enjoyed carrying humans around. It felt kind of nice cradling her small warm frame against him, thin hair strands tickling at the seams of his plating, her smooth helm resting against his chestplates as she panted with exhaustion and pain. Kind of like holding a sparkling, though there had been no sparklings since... "Hey you haven't fallen asleep on me have you?" He knew she hadn't but he needed to distract himself from that other line of thought.

"Mm? No, I'm still" She coughed wetly into one hand, a new splatter of red blood joining the mess already there. Bad, still coughing up blood after she'd used her power to heal herself. "Still here Ratch."

"You've used up all your power haven't you." Ratchet realized he was putting off putting her down on the medical berth he'd brought her over to. Well it was easier to talk to her like this he reasoned, not letting himself realize that was just an excuse.

"Um, yes." She squirmed slightly then went still. It was a bad sign too that she wasn't objecting to being carried. But she was going to be fine, he would make sure of it.

"You are still badly hurt though you've stabilized yourself. I would be more comfortable if you would allow me to

"Don't." She said weak voice going sharp and a flare of terror radiating off her.

Bumblebee let out a worried sound. "But Ratchet" The scout began protesting.

"I mean... don't use that word..." She started and Ratchet began reviewing his files to try to find what word she meant but after a moment she continued. "Examine. Don't say. Panic. And don't... don't let see, me see your tools. That... that should help." She said optics squeezed shut.

"And then you can stay calm enough for me to check you over?"

"Probably better you strap me down actually."

"I don't know what you went through, and we WILL talk about that later, but I'm pretty sure strapping you down would only aggravate your condition." Not that they had restraints that would fit her, too small to be a normal Cybertronian and too large to be human. Carefully he set her down on the medical berth. "So I have your permission to..." He reviewed his vocabulary quickly, picking his words carefully "care for your injuries as I think best?"

"Yes." She said reluctantly and reached out to catch one of his digits in her small supple hand, eyes still shut tight. The metallic skin was stiffer than human skin but still smooth and fully flexible. Fascinating. He almost missed her next words. "Be gentle okay? And careful with medicine. My, my internals... so mixed up. Not safe." His spark went cold.

"What? No painkillers or, or that human medicine that knocks them out?" Bumblebee burst out alarmed, the thoughts they were all thinking. Everyone was crowded around Ratchet and the medical berth, everyone but Sari and those off base. Sari was still working on Shockwave no doubt. That mech was a mess and she tended to lose track of things while working on a healing.

"Are you using your power to dull your pain?"

"Not enough, had to, organs, bleeding." He knew she had trouble with language but this was sad.

Predaking reached out one clawed servo. "I'm sorry." he voiced, deeply grieved. "I didn't mean to."

"Ep ep ep ep" Ratchet knocked his servo away with his own. "Don't touch her. This is medical. Dragon can you tell me what exactly is wrong? The rest of you get out. Now." He was going to have to open her torn shirt to get a proper look at the wounds and he knew that was taboo among fleshies. Cybertronians were naturally armored and protected and did not need clothes but he had no way to know how far her transformation had progressed.

"But" Several voices protested all at once, Bulkhead and Preadaking loudest. As if any of them could help her by staying. Their protective protocols were all fully active it seemed.

"I am going to have to remove some of her clothes." Ratchet said with forced patience. "So go."

"Uh, but isn't that like, not allowed among humans?" Bulkhead said puzzled and Predaking let out a growl glaring threateningly at Ratchet.

"If you do anything" the Predacon began threateningly.

"Oh man. Seriously?" Sari's mother gasped with a groan. Fresh blood and Energon (he really was going to have to ask her about that, Energon was usually pretty back for organics) seemed to be leaking from her wounds. Her hands moved to fumble with her buttons largely ignored by the bots.

"I'm a doctor." Ratchet said haughtily. "Treatment of wounds supersedes usual human rules on modesty."

"So its okay for you to see her without clothes but not me?" Predaking demanded. A hush fell over the assembled bots and Ratchet gaped at the Predacon, his processor struggling to compute. Predaking seemed to shrink slightly under the weight of all those horrified optics. "What?"

"You... you... what?" Ratchet couldn't tell who said that, it might have even been him. He'd heard that Preadaking and Dragon were close and Sari was always trying to get a rise out of him by saying her mother and Predaking were busy making baby Predacons on the Nemesis (which was frankly impossible and even if it were it wouldn't be any of his business. Why did Sari think he would care? He most certainly did not). But what exactly _had_ been going on? Was, did Preadaking have feelings for their resident dragon? Feelings for an (though not so fully any more) organic?

"There, it’s off. Don't really need it anymore, plating covers everything, just force of habit." Dragon grumbled. Copper flowed over the sides of her torso going up and over her exposed shoulders to cover her back while the matte black oxide ran down the center starting just below where her collarbone should have been. Her abdomen was pure silver with a dozen small plates to allow generous flexibility. The overall effect looked like she was wearing an open copper vest over a black top, both exposing her midriff. Except the tears from Predaking's claws the plating was smooth, only the slightest of curves and the tapering of her waist telling she was, in fact, female, much like her human form. At the exact center of her chest was a clear glass, slightly domed lens, the source of the glow he had observed beneath her shirt before, though now the glow was all but gone. How had she drained her power so fast? She had been using it for speed when she arrived and must have poured quite a bit into Shockwave before her attack.

Carefully he took her ruined shirt and used it to wipe the blood and Energon from her wounds. She hissed softly in pain but he could tell he was losing her, pain an exhaustion driving her into unconsciousness. Her life wasn't in danger at least, she was too ornery to be dying. He could do a thorough scan when she was out.

Ratchet got out his welding torch. He wasn't sure what she had done to close the tears in her plating but her breathing had cracked them open and they were leaking again. Or maybe he had jostled her too hard, a sad thought that, she was just so small so fragile. Still very like a human that way. "This will hurt." He warned wishing he could give her painkiller chips but she didn't seem Cybertronian enough.

"Fireproof." She mumbled hands and eyes tightly closed.

Yeah right. Brave little idiot.

Optimus and Bumblebee, both trained in basic field medicine, helped hold the gashes closed as Ratchet welded them. Plating was far superior to skin in this, these welds would hold fast even if they restricted her breathing a bit. The smell of flesh burning underneath the plating though made his tanks churn and his spark wince even as his well-trained servos remained steady. He did his best not to let the flame dip below the inner edge of her plating but he needed to melt it all the way through for the welds to form properly. "Sorry." He whispered as she let out yet another hiss of pain. Optimus was speaking soft soothing words in that gentle rumble of his, trying to keep her calm as they worked. Predaking was still lurking nearby but the two Wreckers had wandered off at least. She was holding remarkably still for all this, Ratchet would have thought she had passed out if not for the slight twitches and the hisses of pain as the torch's flame brushed sensitive organic tissues.

Then, just as he was finishing the third weld, she had an attack and suddenly all three of them were holding her down as she fought with surprising strength to escape. She was shouting in some strange language, eyes wide but unseeing. "Hold her still, the weld hasn't set yet and I don't want to redo it." At least her welds set quickly, probably because the metal was so thin. She definitely had post-traumatic stress disorder, though she had managed to hide it all this time really well. Medical torture. Experimentation maybe? Why else would the word examine and medical care trigger her attacks? Soon her struggles ceased and she went limp, eyes focusing as her mind returned from whatever dark place it had been trapped in.

"Is she okay?" Predaking half demanded looming over Ratchet from behind. The medic nearly jumped out of his plating. It hadn't been three weeks since the Predacon had nearly offlined him and the beastbot hadn't exactly been around for him to grow comfortable with his presence as an almost ally.

"Geth." Dragon breathed, more a confused exhale as she tried to orient herself.

Ratchet gritted his teeth, forcing his vents to even but Optimus spoke up before he had calmed. "You are very young so you do not know the lingering toll some types of experiences can have on a person if repeatedly inflicted, especially over long periods of time. The mind is damaged, even after the frame heals. She fights battles long past."

"What? But, you can fix her right?" Ratchet could feel Predaking glaring at him though the Preadacon's EM field pulsed with desperate worry rather than anger.

"Damage to mind and spark are not so easily repaired Predaking." The Prime intoned solemnly.

"Not battle." Ratchet said softly. "Torture." The way she immediately turned her helm away from him was all the confirmation he needed. Surprise and horror flared in Predaking and Bumblebee's fields but from Optimus he could only sense a deepening sorrow. The Prime too then had suspected.

"But she is a mighty warrior! How could any" Predaking protested but Ratchet cut him off.

"The Decepticons were able to capture her." He pointed out grimly.

"But she, that was because I"

"This is not the time or place Predaking." Optimus admonished sternly and the Predacon tensed, as if about to attack, before relaxing with an annoyed growl.

"Dragon, are you okay for me to continue?" Ratchet asked softly, readying his blowtorch. She nodded slightly and the three worked together in almost silence as they finished the welds. She lose consciousness part way through the first exit wound in her back, much to everyone's relief. Soon they were cleaning up and Ratchet very carefully took some samples of the blood and Energon she had lost, hoping it would give him some clues as to what exactly her body was going through.

The shallow glass dome on her chest had been damaged in Predaking's attack, a sharp impact point that sent spider thread cracks all along the surface followed by a deep scratch where the claw had scraped along the surface to dig into the plating at the edge. A tough material not to have shattered or been fully pierced through. It probably didn't hurt at least but he didn't have a way to repair it. Perhaps he could find out what it was made of and machine a new one to replace it. Probably just cosmetic. The faint glow was all but invisible in the brightly lit medbay but if he blocked out the light and brought his helm in close he could see it pulsing faintly in time with her heartbeat. The dome was directly over where a Cybertronian's spark chamber would be. No, silly thought, organics didn't have sparks. The essence of their selves worked differently. Probably a power reservoir of some kind.

He did a couple cursory scans but he was tired and they were an awful jumble. Later, he would review the results later. She was stable now and he needed rest. "Predaking. I take it you intend to stay here and watch her? Good. If you need a break have someone else take over. If there are any changes, and I mean any, come and get me. Otherwise she needs as much sleep as she can get so try not to wake her."


	6. Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some cute things between Shocks and Predaking.

Shockwave stared at the ceiling of the medbay. His human, Sari, didn't hate him. It had been several earth hours since she had declared it to him and there was this weeeeeeiiiiirrrrrd feeling haunting him. It was, not horrible. She had been kind to him and it had been not horrible. It was more than just relief, of pain physical and emotional lessened, it was something deeper. And stimulated by this foreign emotion his spark was coughing up tangled threads of memory with similar emotional resonance. They were all about Predaking. All of them.

Predaking was there wasn't he?

Shockwave sat up and let out a pained groan. His cabling ached and his hydraulics were complaining. Yesterday (or was it earlier that same day?) he'd, what? Yes, the forced shut down. Overstressed the pain had been so great without his human he hadn't noticed the added physical pain from the tension that had begun to tear him apart from the inside. He felt another hum of anger building within him. The human! Her fault! She had abandoned him and...

But as he looked down at her, still clutched to his chestplates, curled against his very spark, deep in an exhausted sleep, the anger faded. It was illogical that he should care, that it should make a difference. She was a tool, a force to repair, she had merely fulfilled her function in spending all her strength to fix the damaged caused by her previous absence, there was no need for gratitude. But she was also a person with an odd name. She was a person who didn't hate him.

Irrelevant. The opinions and feelings of others had never meant anything to him before.

The screams of a sparkling echoed in his processor. Guilt. That was what had started this. Before he had done terrible terrible things. All that guilt and shame and horror, banished by the not unpleasant memories of Predaking he had been dealing with earlier, came back. His spark hurt. It writhed and convulsed. Shame guilt horror for the things he'd done. Memories took over, hijacking his processor, forcing him to relive yet another terrible series of experiments he had worked deaf to his own internal horror. He was a despicable creature, the most terrible monster ever to come from Cybertron. He even made Megatron seem mercifully indifferent by comparison. Megatron was evil Shockwave realized with surprise, and he hated the warlord for it, for the cruelty and oppression, but nowhere near so much as he hated himself.

A terrible despicable monster, that was what he was, he'd done terrible awful

And there was the human girl again in his arm, sleeping peacefully. She forgave him. She didn't hate him. He couldn't understand, but then she did not know. Small, innocent, what could she know of his evil? But her forgiveness, her acceptance, it soothed the pain inside him in a way her strange power did not. She didn't hate him. She even, incomprehensible as it was, cared about him, about his pain. Did he care about the pain of others? He didn't know. He had before, long before, that was a large part of the pain of his integrating memories, but did he now? More recent memories indicated lesser feelings of, what was the word? Compassion. Yes, less compassion in emotional memories closer to the now compared to memories from even earlier in his function. She had compassion, that thing that Megatron most hated and mocked, and it helped soothe his tortured spark. Megatron was wrong. Compassion was good, he liked for his human to have it for him.

That strange feeling was bubbling up in him again, making his spark feel so odd but not unpleasant, the emotional memory fragments going quiet and soft, harmonizing with the feeling. Again they circled around Predaking, the other source of that feeling in his function. Shockwave turned his single optic until it focused on the gloriously massive Predacon. Truly the beast was a marvel to behold, perfectly formed and positively bristling with with intricate sharp edged plates. The overlapping plates were smaller than you would expect on such a large creature but that was what gave him his extraordinary flexibility, able to curl and twist and contort as if he were made of fluid as he danced more than flew through the sky. Even the Autobot's organic false Predacon could hardly do better, and it had been entirely unarmored, no match for his perfect Autobot slaughtering machine.

As he stared at the great beast he felt a chorus of pleasant emotions with associated memories, many of the years it had been just the two of them on Cybertron. Truly Predaking was the greatest of all his life's work. There was a name for that. Pride. He focused on it, flashes of his majestic beast's first flight, the shredded carcass of some unfortunate drone the beast had found out on patrol and brought to its master, the grudging respect that had grown into absolute loyalty as Shockwave had tamed and trained the beast he had created to serve him. His. Perfect. Obedient. Loyal. Ferocious.

Moving gingerly Shockwave turned until his pedes went over the edge of the medical berth then to the floor. Again he looked down at the sleeping human in his arm. He did not wish, to wake her but the urge to go to Predaking was strong. Oh well, she seemed deeply asleep. Standing hurt, walking did too, but that pleasant feeling, remembered and current, called him. Predaking lifted his massive head from the floor, golden optics stilted as he met Shockwave's gaze. There was no hostility there, only irritated curiosity, the long curving plates that made up the Predacon's crest angled, rotated slightly on edge. The beast was upset, bordering on distressed.

Carefully Shockwave put his human down on the ground. Actual physical contact was unnecessary, only proximity required. Moving slowly Shockwave reached out and stroked one of the ridges of Predaking's crest drawing an irritated growl from the beast's vocalizer. The tone and pitch were were wrong to mean true danger so Shockwave continued stroking and gently scratching at the joints with pointed digits in the crest until the plates had returned to their normal position. Predaking let out a pleased grumble and Shockwave lost himself in memories of grooming and caring for his perfect monster.

Happiness. The word popped up unbidden in his processor and with a shock he realized it was true or accurate, or what he was feeling anyway. Happiness. He was happy. Predaking made him happy. Sari not hating him made him happy. Grooming Predaking made him happy. It was odd, happy memories did not hurt so much to reintegrate, even when overwhelming his sensors. He let the memories flow, trying to sort through them quickly as his single servo flowed through the familiar motions, stroking down spinal ridges and carefully picking out bits of grit that had gotten lodged in the overlaps. People smiled when happy. He had seen it in others often enough. If he had a face, if it hadn't been taken from him, would it be smiling? Or was the pain inside him (thankfully mostly physical from torn cables and strained struts instead of the terrible convulsing emotional pain that usually plagued him) too great for smiles. What was it like to smile? Or have a normal head with a face for that matter?

Shockwave's musings and sorting of tangled memories was halted as he felt massive servos clasping his own. It took a while to reorient himself, memories reluctant to loose their hold on his processor.

"Wha... you... ?" A strong voice coming in and out as his audio sensors reset, input re-stabilizing. Last came visual as he forced the memories to stop overwriting the input from his optical sensor. There were the massive servos. Shockwave looked up to see Predaking looming over him in robot mode a half expectant scowl on his faceplate.

"What?" Shockwave asked feeling stupid and mildly annoyed that his grooming had not fully relaxed his prized creation.

Predaking's optical ridges angled steeply in a scowl. "Why do you not seem to hear my voice? Why are you not paying attention? It is not like you to be so distracted."

Not like him. For some reason that phrase sparked another wave of happiness inside him. Suggestion of familiarity with Shockwave's behavioral habits. "I am... damaged. Memories... reintegration causes distraction. I am alert now but... my processor was damaged earlier." He could feel it, a slight sluggishness to his normally keen mind. His human, Sari, had been working on it when he had come back online but had not finished her work before succumbing to exhaustion. In a way that was gratifying, annoying she had failed, but it gave him a grim satisfaction to know she had spent all her power on him alone. As she should.

"I don't understand. You are damaged so you are in the medbay, but what has that to do with your memories?" The Predacon asked letting go of Shockwave's servo to fold his arms over his chest plating, his fire chamber glowing a soft inactive yellow.

Shockwave wanted to ask why his pet was here, in the Autobot base. With the influx of memories slackening (though he certainly wasn't even a tiny bit through what would make the total of his function) he was able to think clearer and questions were starting to form and, despite his boiling emotions that still revolted at the idea of logic or science, he found all the parts of him agreeing that more information on his situation was necessary. But he owed his most treasured creation an explanation. Logic decreed that he needed favor and the loyalty of Predaking who he had last heard rampaging to kill their mighty leader. It was necessary to ensure Predaking would still be loyal to the cause despite his outburst. His emotions however, were more concerned with Predaking _understanding_. It was strange to feel this seeking toward another spark. These needs and desires had existed in the split time but had never reached his processor. Now he was conscious of the feeling which created new feelings (wonder and confusion) in turn which he became aware of and created new feelings which he became

"Shockwave?"

Shockwave rebooted his optic as Predaking's strange voice broke him free of the infinite loop. It was still so odd to hear Predaking speak actual words. But he had asked a question and Shockwave needed to answer. The Decepticon scientist ex-vented slowly as he retrieved the question from his overtaxed flash memory. "Long ago I was altered so my processor and spark were... disconnected. The human girl" He gestured to the small form of Sari far enough away as to not get underpede but not enough to dilute the flow of power that eased his condition. "She reconnected the two during the battle on the Nemesis after you were thrown overboard by Megatron. I have... not been myself since. Adjusting is difficult, all my remembered function split, my data banks are trying to assimilate data from my spark, my... emotional experiences. The process is putting significant strain on all my systems. The human is necessary to prevent system from overloading and burning out completely." He explained, watching Predaking's scowl soften slightly with concern, though he still kept up the grumpy facade.

"So the human child repaired you only to break you in a different way and you cannot survive without her."

"The situation is displeasing but logically it will come to an end with time." Predaking let out an irritated snort and fixed Shockwave's human with a disapproving glare that came too close to threatening for comfort. "You will not harem the human." He ordered.

Predaking bristled. "I take orders from no one."

"You will not harm my human Predaking." Shockwave reiterated, voice soft as he placed a servo on Predaking's shoulder. A faint growl rumbled deep inside the bot but soon his flared plating settled under his master's touch. It might feel different to touch him in robot mode, the plating all rearranged beautifully to allow this new form, but the plates were familiar and, with his emotions linked in, the feel of the spark within was familiar. Pride. Happiness. Comfort. Those were the emotions associated with that spark. "You are mine. Great, powerful, king of your kind, but you are still mine." Predaking scowled but didn't argue, something thoughtful deep inside. "You are my greatest creation Predaking. And in all my long long function, the only thing I can remember that has brought me real joy."

Predaking stared at Shockwave intently, soaking up his words and ruminating on them. The Decepticon scientist held still and quiet, sensing that this was a turning point for the beast. Would he submit to his creator and master or rebel as he had against Megatron? But Shockwave had something more than just command over Predaking there was... what was the word? A relationship, yes, he had a relationship with the Predacon, an emotional binding he had been blind to before. It was a sweet pleasing thing and he hoped he would not destroy it in this attempt to use it to bring his creation to heel. It seemed there were advantages to feeling and better understanding emotions, illogical as they were.

Predaking's optics softened, expression and stance relaxing. "You have always been good to me. Even before I made myself known as a thinking being you treated me with honor and respect."

"You are the greatest of all my many works. But... you were more than that too." Shockwave hesitated. There was a word for this, what was it? What expressed this heap of emotion and ideas that tangled so confusedly in his processor? "You are... that is... you are my son Predaking." He blurted finally then hurried to explain. "I have no family, I remember none, but during those lonely years abandoned on Cybertron, you... we..." tangled emotions clogged his vocalizer and his servo and arm cannon trembled. Curse these emotions, they interfered with his efficiency and motor controls.

But the emotional display seemed to resonate with Predaking's and the Predacon reached out one clawed servo placing it on Shockwave's shoulder. "Fa... ther?"

"No. That is a foolish organic word. I am your sire."

Predaking snorted then his optics moved past Shockwave to the medical berths past him. "She claims the title of mother to my people, I will call you father."

"Sire."

"Father."

"Sire!"

"Father!"

Shockwave let out an angry hiss. "Fine! You may call me your father if you prefer." He hurt everywhere, tweaked joints and cabling submitting complaints with increasing frequency.

But his caving had the desired effect, Predaking relaxing and looking positively smug at the inconsequential victory. Infuriating creature, but Shockwave had always valued that stubbornness in his creation, it was part of what made him so effective and (though his logical mind cringed at the sentimentality of the word) endearing.

"If you are my father..." The Predacon mused slowly though there was a glint in his optics that suggested he had considered this before. "Then you can give me girl advice."

"What?" Shockwave's processor glitched and stuttered, trying to analyze the words.

Large servos came down on his shoulders, pushing him down. "You are damaged. Sit. Rest. And give me advice on girls." The Predacon said in a half growl looking so smug Shockwave was certain that this had been a trap, premeditated or quickly constructed when the situation presented itself. When had Predaking become so cunning?

Shockwave's joints creaked in protest as Predaking increased the pressure on his shoulder struts. Feeling confused and thoroughly unsettled Shockwave yielded, knees bending and letting himself be guided into a sitting position on the floor. Predaking moved slightly to one side so he could watch the medical berths out the corner of one optic then settled on the floor as well, watching Shockwave expectantly, still as smug as an overstuffed turbotiger.

Oh dear. Girl advice. Usually you got a sparkmate before becoming a sire and assuredly the act of capturing a femme's affections would give a mech some sort of "girl advice" to pass on to their own creations.

Well he had (sort of) asked Bulkhead (sort of) about how to get human females (which were sort of like femme bots right?) to stick around earlier right? If only he could remember what the Autobot had said...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bad Shockwave claiming to be Predaking's father, now its super awkward for you to have a relationship with Sari because it means your son is trying to get girl advice from you so he can date your sort of girlfriend's mom. x.x


End file.
